Sailor Moon Giga
by Nagashi Ikari
Summary: Alternative to SuperS Sailor Moon and the Sailor Soldiers return to battle against a new enemy, who not just wants to conquer the Universe, but also he wants Revenge.
1. Destruction’s Requiem

Sailor Moon G

LNF here, presenting you all with a new fan fiction of mine.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, the anime is property of Naoko Takeuchi, but I do own The Skull Empire and anything to do with it as well as the plot of this fan fic, the songs used in this Chapter belong to their respective owners.

Just before I get started, I'd just like to explain when this fic takes place after Sailor Moon S, basically you could say it's an alternative version of SuperS, I hope that clears some of the plot up.

Special mention goes to MoonKent, who did the date scene for me in this chapter, a big thank you to her

"------" People's Speech

'------' People's Thoughts/Narration for Flashbacks.

---()---

Episode 1: Destruction's Requiem

---()---

In a vast palace, a queen sits at a throne surrounded by loyal subjects.

"All hail our beautiful Queen, Nehrenia, All hail our beautiful Queen, Nehrenia, All hail our beautiful Queen, Nehrenia, All hail our beautiful Queen, Nehrenia" they chanted as Nehrenia sat at the throne with her eyes closed.

"Soon the Princess of the White Moon shall feel my power" she said to herself.

"Do you really think so, Queen of a century long dream" said a male voice.

Nehrenia snapped who eyes open as her subjects disappeared as she stood up from her throne.

"Who dares disturb me?" she demanded as the doors slammed open as eighteen heavily armoured guards ran in, the armour making them seven feet tall and the armoured coloured black, the boots having a skull on the knee joint, it's chest armour having a eight pointed star, they have two large shoulder pads one of them having the same eight pointed star as the chest armour has except with an eye in the centre, the other having a skull on it, the back pack being stuck onto the back of the armour has to out stretched arms with have grates on them with air escaping from them, their head armour having a grate around the nose and mouth so you can hear the breathing, red eye lenses to strike fear into the strongest of hearts and horn sticking out of the top of the armour. Their bolters having a small handle with trigger, a large magazine of large bullets sticking out far in front of the handle, a large slide where the bullets come out rapidly.

Then the guards stood at attention as a man entered wearing a mask that goes all around the top half of his head and around his eyes and ears, his face being very pale and his mouth being skull lipped with a grey lining going around his face. Platinum blond hair that goes half way down his back which blew in the wind, Shoulder Armour is red and wears a cloak which is red that blew in the wind, the inside his boots that are red goes up to His Knees. He wears A Red Belt with the Skull Empire insignia which is a skull with half of it which is cybernetic with a cog round the skull on it, wearing Black Armour with Purple Armour on his chest biceps, wrist armour that goes to his elbows, as well as red boots the go up to his knees with a triangle knee cap on the end of the boot with purple armour inside the boots, when he stopped walking he drew himself to his full height of six foot, ten inches.

"Who are you who dare to insult me" demanded Nehrenia.

"My name is Nagash, the Praetor of the Skull Empire" he said as the guards aimed their guns, "Destroy the mirrors"

"NO" yelled Nehrenia as the guards fired their bolters on every mirror that they could see.

After the firing was ceased Nagash walked towards Nehrenia, who was on her knees, no longer the beautiful women but an old crone.

"See what I mean by a century long dream" said Nagash looking at the shattered mirrors admiring the destruction.

"How dare you?" she yelled raising her arm at Nagash and firing Dark Lightning bolts at him, when the bolts hit him he didn't flinch as the bolts absorbed into him.

"HOW" she yelled starting to move back slowly.

"I am the Lord of Destruction" he replied "I can do anything that I wish that would cause destruction".

"The Lord of Destruction, impossible, he's just a myth, a legend of old"

"I am no myth or legend my dear, mealy REALITY" he said pulling his arm back and firing a Dark Lightning bolt at Nehrenia, when it hit her she screamed in pure agony as she slowly vaporized into nothing.

"Farewell to a waste of flesh" said Nagash as he turned and begins to leaving the room only to stop by his men; he gets out a small device which he activates making a holographic person dressed in Generals armour appear on the device.

"General, Order an Exterminatus; I want everything on this planetoid destroyed"

"Yes my Lord" said General as he bowed slightly as he disappeared from the device.

Nagash and his men reached down at their belts as they set co-ordinates before teleporting away.

---After the Exterminatus---

Nagash stood on a bridge of a war cruiser in a vast space looking out to the stars the war cruiser having a hammerhead shark life front with the bridge on the fine, the wings spread out all the way to the back of the cruiser.

"Praetor, the exterminatus is complete" reported General

"Excellent General" replied Nagash as he turns around to face him, "Now have the helm set a course for Earth."

"Earth, but why my lord?"

"I wise man once told me that the stars know everything, but sometimes they don't, sometimes answers lie on planets, mine lies on that blue and green planet, I once went their alone and some questions were left unanswered."

"Are you going to conquer it and add it to the Empire?" asked General.

"Yes General, I've already sent Decoe and Bocoe their, I've had a citadel built their secretly, I'll be going their personally while you and our forces return to Repulus"

"You're going alone with just Decoe and Bocoe? But what about our armies, certainly you would consider taking the Black Legion with you"

"I've considered that, I've decided that the armies will remain on Repulus along with my Black Legion, I'll take the Skull Bots with me and they should be enough for what is installed"

General bowed slightly then he turned to a helmsman.

"Set a course for Earth, maximum warp, Praetor's orders."

"Yes sir" replied the helmsman.

The war cruiser turned around and warped away to the Solar System.

---Later---

Serena skipped down the street, Darien at her side. "Oh, it's so wonderful to finally have some peace!" she exclaimed.

Darien smiled down at her. "Yes, it is," he agreed. "And I have a wonderful day planned, just for the two of us."

Serena beamed up at him and hugged his arm. "You're the best boyfriend ever, Darien!"

From around the corner, Mina and Lita carefully watched the happy couple. "Are you sure that we should be watching them?" Lita asked.

"Definitely!" Mina replied decisively. "If something happens, we need to be there to protect them."

"What could happen?" Lita asked. "There aren't any enemies left to attack."

Mina turned and looked at her with narrowed eyes. "You never know what might happen, Lita," she said seriously. She quickly whipped back around to keep watching Serena and Darien. "It is our duty to watch their every move and see what they do…er, I mean, protect them."

Lita shook her head. "You're never going to learn, are you?" However, she joined her friend in following Serena, not noticing the fact that they also were being followed.

Darien stole a subtle look backward. "They're doing it again," he said to Serena.

She knew what he meant without even a glance. "Who did Mina drag in this time?"

"Looks like Lita," he replied. "It also looks like Rini is doing some spy work of her own behind them."

Serena looked up at him with sparkling eyes. "How should we give them the slip?"

"Well, we've done the movie theatre thing, the jewellery store thing, and the turn and confront them thing. What do you say that we transform and fly out of here at the next alley?" Darien said mischievously.

Serena nodded and grinned. The two of them continued along as though nothing they knew nothing about the two followers behind them. As they rounded a corner, Darien suddenly pulled her arm and led her behind a building. With a small flash, they both transformed. Darien, now Tuxedo Mask picked up Super Sailor Moon, the transformed Serena, and jumped with all the strength and power that the transformations gave. At the top of the building, they looked down and laughed as Mina and Lita came running around the corner and searched for them. With a smile, they hopped away to continue their date, privately this time.

Mina groaned. "Man, they did it again! They always manage to give us the slip!"

Lita hid a smile. "Well, I did tell try to tell you. They're getting smarter and probably know most of our tricks by now."

"Hmmph!" Mina muttered, flipping her long, blond hair over one shoulder. "Then we'll just have to think up new ones!" She turned and stalked out of the alleyway, head held high, as though she had planned for this all along. "Let's call Amy and Raye."

Lita laughed. "Do you think that they will cooperate with your diabolical plan to spy on Serena and Darien in hopes of seeing them kiss?"

Mina tossed her head haughtily. "Of course they will!" Suddenly she realized what the second half of Lita's sentence had been. "And this isn't for the purpose of seeing them kiss! We have Serena's best interests at heart." Lita rolled her eyes. Ignoring her, Mina pulled out her communicator and pushed the small blue button.

Amy's face appeared on the miniature screen. "Hello, Mina. Is there trouble somewhere?"

Mina shook her head. "No, I just wanted to ask you if we could borrow your Mercury computer to find Serena and Darien."

"Find Serena and Darien?" Amy repeated. Then her blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You're not following them on their date again, are you?" Without waiting for an answer, Ami said, "Mina, you've got to stop doing that! It's wrong! And I've told you before, these communicators and my computer is for sailor business only!"

"But…" Mina tried to protest.

"No buts!" Amy said firmly. "Besides, I'm sure that you have more important things to do than follow them around. Just because you're in high school now doesn't mean that you can slack off. You need to study more!"

Mina groaned. "Not the old lecture again, Amy? Listen, I'll get off right now if you want me to." She hit the end button on the communicator.

"I told you that she wouldn't listen," Lita said, smirking.

Throwing her a glare, Mina punched the red button. This time, it was Raye's face that appeared. And unlike Amy, she was annoyed from the start.

"Mina! How many times are you going to call me and ask me to do a fire-reading so that you can locate Serena and Darien?"

Mina blushed red. "How…I…We were just…" she stammered.

"I don't care! I'm in the middle of something and I can't be bothered right now!" Raye hung up her end of the call.

Mina lowered her communicator. She could see the mocking glance in Lita's eyes without even looking. "Let's go the arcade!" she said suddenly. "I bet that I can beat you at the Sailor V game!" She took off running.

"Ha! As if!" Lita shouted, and chased after her.

"Wait for me!" a voice suddenly called from behind them.

Lita looked back and recognized the bouncy, pink hair. "Rini! What were you doing?"

"I was practicing my spying skills," the young girl replied proudly.

"And who, may I ask, were you spying on?" Mina asked, coming up beside Lita.

"You!" Rini giggled at their surprised faces. "I'm going to the arcade now!" She took off running as fast as her little legs could carry her. After a moment's hesitation, Mina and Lita joined her, smiling as well.

Raye smiled and laughed as she turned off the communicator. Hitting the pink button, she waited until for the bubbly face of Sailor Moon to appear. When it did, Raye gave her a wink. "All clear," she said. "I put her down in her place this time. She won't be bothering you until late afternoon at the soonest."

"Thanks, Raye! I owe you one!" Serena replied.

"Just place it on the bill," Raye said with a smile and turned off the call.

Sailor Moon turned with a smile to Tuxedo Mask. "Just the two of us, all day."

Tuxedo Mask smiled back. "And I have plenty of stuff planned!" They detransformed, grabbed each other's hands, and took off.

Later that day, with evening touching the city, Serena sighed with happiness. It had been the best day the she had ever had. Of course, she said that every time, but today had seemed extra special. She looked up at Darien. 'He is the perfect guy, she thought. He planned this whole day and is ending it with a perfect walk in a great park. Could I be any luckier?'

Darien looked down at her. "What are you thinking about?" he asked.

Serena gazed deep into his midnight blue eyes. "That I have the most perfect boyfriend ever," she replied.

Slowly the two of them drew closer together. At last, their lips touched. Lost in their kiss, neither of them noticed the shooting star that flew over their heads.

---Elsewhere---

On a heavily defend island; A sky scraper that goes above the clouds stands from within a hole stopping anyone's hopes of entering, defended by turrets, missile launchers and spikes sticking out of the tower, Inside the Control Room, Praetor Nagash sits ay a desk which is on a platform which almost faces the entrance, a small screen in front of him showing a section of the city of Tokyo, behind he was a computer console where he could communicate with his minions, in front of the desk two of his Skull Bots stand, Nagash watches the Skull War cruiser warp away from the solar system on a radar.

"So this is the Planet Earth? I expected something more of the species, unknown of what is going to happen" Nagash said with a smirk as he spun the globe on his desk around.

The tall light green Skull Bot, Decoe stepped forward a bit.

"Our analysis reports detected very primitive technology, not much for our mighty empire to struggle with it" he said in a low pitched mono tone cybernetic voice.

The short light grey Skull Bot, Bocoe stepped forward

"If we launch all our Skull Bots at once we should conquer the planet in a matter of minutes" he said in a high pitched mono tone cybernetic voice.

"No, I'll make somewhat of a sport out of it, and once I conquered this planet I will set up a new foundation of the Skull Empire, then I will expand the Empire to the rest of the universe" said Nagash as he laughed aloud standing from his chair.

---()---

See you next chapter; those ever so helpful reviews, no flames please.


	2. Praetor Nagash’s Ambition

Here we go Ladies and Gents, here's where the action starts, and I've changed my author name.

Credit goes to my friends Janneia and Starlus for their respective scenes that they wrote.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, the anime is property of Naoko Takeuchi, but I do own The Skull Empire and anything to do with it as well as the plot of this fan fic.

()-

Episode 2: Praetor Nagash's Ambition

()-

Tokyo, Japan-

Everything is peaceful in the city of Tokyo. The birds are singing; the wind is nothing but a calm breeze and…

"I'm going to be soooooooooooo late."

A familiar teenaged blonde female is running down the streets of Tokyo. Serena Tsukino is running as fast as she can to school with a piece of toast in her mouth. Luna, her cat is chasing after her with Serena's lunch bag in her mouth.

"Slow down, you've forgot your lunch."

Serena suddenly stops as something assaults her senses and she looks to the sky. Luna sees this and stops about two feet from Serena.

"Serena, what's wrong?" asked Luna

"I don't know, but I feel as if someone is watching us," Serena replies.

The Citadel -

Inside the Control Room, Nagash watches Tokyo from the screen on his desk, while Decoe and Bocoe stand to either side, in front of him.

"Conquering this puny planet will be a picnic; as an appetiser, I'll conquer this city first." says Nagash with a smirk.

"Which Skull Bot will you use, Praetor?" asks Decoe, whilst bringing Nagash a deck of cards on a tray.

"No one should be able to destroy any of the Skull Bots," states Bocoe. "Even the oldest ones you have."

Nagash takes the deck of the Skull Bots cards and flicks them through between his hands so that he can see them all and smirks.

"Which one, which one?" Nagash says, still with a smirk pasted on his features. This quickly turns into a frown. Bringing his hand to cup his face and holding the cards in his other hand, he ponders still. "Mmmm… which one will it be?"

Nagash then gets up from his chair and walks to the computer console behind his desk. He inserts the cards into a holder that closes after the cards are placed within. He presses a few buttons on the console and it offers a card. Nagash takes the card and looks at it to reveal the chosen Skull Bot. It has well-built legs, a superb built body with missile ports and missiles for hands with a lone lens for its eye.

"Missile Wrist, Bingo!"

High School-

"Then the next thing I knew was that I thought someone was watching me," explains Serena to her friends.

"Strange," replies Amy "The same thing happened to me."

"Me too; we're going to have to see Raye and Mina if this happened to them as well." Lita states.

"You don't think that there's a new enemy, do you?" asks Serena.

"Let's hope that's not the case, but if it is then we'll be ready." declares Lita.

"I hope we haven't gone too rusty after our battle against the Death Busters," remarks Amy.

"I hope not!" says Serena as she takes her timetable out of her pocket. She looks at it before squealing.

"Serena, what's wrong?" asks Amy.

"I have Mr Floodgate for Science next," she says as sweat drops appears on both Amy and Lita's foreheads.

"Who's Mr Floodgate?" queries Lita.

"Only the most big nosed, boring and mean science teacher is this school!"

"I'm not mean, I'm nice."

The 3 girls turn around to see a tall, but plump man with short hair. He is wearing glasses; a blue shirt and grey tie with a light blazer and trousers.

"H-Hello Mr F-Floodg-gate..." says a very nervous Serena.

"I'll be seeing you in Science, Serena." After he says this, Mr Floodgate turns around and leaves.

"I'm going to be in detention for sure!" wails Serena as yet another sweat drop appears on Amy and Lita's foreheads.

The Beach-

Some citizens are having fun at the beach by playing volleyball, surfing or sun bathing; a group of adults play a game of volley ball while a sunbather looks up from reading a magazine to see a shadow in the sea - close to the beach.

One of the volleyballs is knocked astray right over this shadow in the water; a female goes over to collect it.

"Aww… You hit it too hard…" she complains as she reaches for the ball but this shadow rises suddenly. Everyone turns to see the Skull Bot, Missile Wrist, who now has water dripping off of his armoured shell. The volleyball that was to be retrieved is flung into the air.

The female looks at the Skull Bot in complete shock. It is only when the volleyball lands on her head that she returns to reality. She blinks, and then screams.

Missile Wrist begins to attack the beach huts using his Missile Arms. These are missiles attached to a wire, allowing for return. These are making people run for their lives; cars explode as Missile Wrist hits them. It walks onto the beach and promptly resumes firing with his missiles. Some people remain behind to get a first hand glance at the events while Praetor Nagash appears in the Skull Mobile. This is a small craft, which has half a sphere with a laser port at the front. It also sports three missile ports to the either side of it; two wings stick out of either side of the craft with a tail at the back. Lastly, a spike pokes out of the bottom of the Mobile. Inside the craft is a console with control sticks; these are used to steer and are attached to a minute computer screen.

"Go on, Missile Wrist, show more of the brute strength characteristic of the mighty Skull Empire!" orders Nagash, who is overseeing the destruction being caused.

Junior High School-

In the Science lab, Mr Floodgate, is giving a lecture on Fleming's Left Hand rule.

"This is a rule for working out the direction of the force when a current is at right angles to a magnetic field. Now would anyone like demonstrate how the Rule is used, hmmm?" asks Mr Floodgate searching the room for anyone who wasn't paying attention, only to see Serena asleep at her desk.

"Serena..."

Serena keeps Z'ing away.

"Serena..."

She stays asleep as Mr Floodgate begins to approach her, like Jaws. Soon enough, he gets right next to her ear and…

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Serena's head shoots straight up from her desk. She is now standing up with her eyes wide open like a bug.

"Now that you're fully awake Serena, can you demonstrate to us how the Fleming's Left Hand rule is used?" asks Mr Floodgate, giving Serena one of his bug eyed stares.

"Well… I… I… don't know." Said Serena very nervously

"That's all right, because you'll be able to write an essay for me about how it is used in… Detention. Oh, and you can sit down now."

Serena sits down as Mr Floodgate walks away.

"He's sooooooooooo mean." whimpers Serena very quietly.

"I'm not mean, I'm nice." remarks Mr Floodgate as he walks away to the front of the classroom.

City-

Missile Wrist continues to rampage through the streets of Tokyo with Nagash following close by in the Skull Mobile. The Police are making themselves useful in constructing a blockage.

"Hold it! If you don't stop we'll open fire!" demands a Police Officer through a megaphone.

Missile Wrist ignores the demanding officer and carries on advancing.

"FIRE!" Orders the same Officer as the armed Police start firing at Missile Wrist. However, due to the primitive artillery, they are not causing any damage. Nagash meanwhile, holds his head in the Skull Mobile, getting rather bored at the attempts aimed at stopping him.

"Such pitiful resistance, I expected much more."

One of the S.W.A.T. Teams uses a flamethrower on Missile Wrist. This causes it to erupt in flames and this also seems to shut it down.

"We did it!" exclaims the Officer.

The fire extinguishes suddenly and Missile Wrist leans forward, unharmed from the fiery attack. Nagash lowers the Skull Mobile in front of the Skull Bot.

"Fools, do you think those weapons are strong enough? And who's the one giving the orders?" demands the smirking Nagash.

"It's me..." replies the Officer meekly.

"Well then, Missile Wrist, feel free to use him as an example." says Nagash, retreating back to his previous flying position above the Skull Bot.

Missile Wrist takes aims with his arm and…

Later -

At a café, Amy, Mina, Lita and Raye are discussing the recent events of late.

"So far it's happened to Serena and Lita, and I. Have the both of you experienced this feeling today?" asks Amy.

"It has, but when it hit you, did you feel that something bad is happening or is going to happen?" asks Mina.

"It has," answers Lita. "Raye, have you noticed anything strange in your fire readings lately?"

"I have, but it was only yesterday that it happened." says Raye

Flashback

Raye was kneeling in front of the great fire alone. Her eyes were closed and when she opened her eyes, she sensed bad vibes, emanating from another presence

. End Flashback

'I felt as though someone was spying on me. I looked around when something made me look closer into the fire. I saw a person in it. He had his back to me, and he was wearing a long black cloak and he had long blonde hair. It appeared that he lifted a mask to his face to place it on himself. From what I could see, it covered the top half of his face. The next thing I saw was him turning around, seemingly to look at me. While I was focussing on seeing his face, he raised his arm. And all I saw after that was darkness...my guess is that he used some kind of energy or force to make me lose consciousness. He seemed secretive, somehow."

Just as Raye finished explaining what happened to her yesterday, thumping sounds were heard. It was so strong that the water in a glass was beginning to ripple.

The four of them take a look at the glass of water to see it rippling after each successive thump. As each thump grows louder, they turn to see Missile Wrist standing in front of a bank. Nagash is flying above the Skull Bot.

A person is walking towards the bank's exit, and as the doors slides open, he spots Missile Wrist and immediately starts to panic. As the Skull Bot head butts his way into the bank and breaking the entrance while he's at it, people are running for their lives in every which direction, heading for cover. Meanwhile, Missile Wrist makes his way into the very centre of the bank.

Nagash is able to see the inside of the bank through Missile Wrist's point of view. He sees people running away and even one person being carried away.

"Missile Wrist, head to the roof top. We'll be able to do more damage from up there." Nagash orders as he begins rising to the roof of the building in the Skull Mobile.

"Roger." The Skull Bot quickly complies. It aims one of its arms upwards and opens fire. His arm goes through the centre of the bank. When Nagash reaches the roof, police cars can be seen to surround the entrance of the Bank.

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHO..." laughs Nagash, "Just like an observation window, eh?"

Nagash turns to see Missile Wrist's arm come out the building; it grapples itself to the top of the building using one of the side missile arms.

"Proceeding to the upper structural surface."

Missile Wrist begins to ascend through the various thirty floors of the bank, creating explosions whilst damaging the outer structure. Eventually, he makes it to the roof. This causes the police below to stare in shock and the Chief of Police very scared.

"Well, now is a good time as any, so I think it's time to start with my greeting." Nagash says smirking. He presses a button n the Skull Mobile; a miniature camera pops out in the Skull Mobile. This allows him to appear all over the city, overriding all the channels on TVs, screens on buildings and holographic screens. These programs end abruptly as the face of Praetor Nagash appears all over the Earth.

"Everyone, listen up and pay careful attention to what I am about to say," he begins. "My name is Praetor Nagash - the true form of a warlord genius. At this current moment in time, I hope you can all stand as witnesses via my imperial network, because from this moment on, this planet is under the rule of the mighty Skull Empire!" he decrees. "OHOHOHOHO."

Elsewhere-

'What the!' thinks Darien a couple of seconds after Nagash makes his announcement.

'Another enemy?' he thinks while rushing out of his apartment as fast as he could 'How do they keep popping up?'

Just before he exits the building, he transforms and takes on the form of Tuxedo Mask. He then proceeds to exit the building.

"Stop it right there!" yells two robotic voices, as Decoe and Bocoe teleport in on the scene.

"Who are you?" demands Tuxedo Mask holding his baton out.

"I'm Decoe," states the taller robot.

"And I'm Bocoe." asserts the shorter robot.

"We serve the great Praetor Nagash and the Skull Empire!" they say in unison.

"You're some of his cronies then?" asks Tuxedo Mask, raising an eyebrow.

"That word doesn't compute," said Decoe scratching his metal head.

"Same here, perhaps the Praetor forgot to import that word into our vocabulary when he created us?" adds Bocoe.

"Perhaps the Praetor didn't import many of these species' vocabularies into our own?"

A sweat drop appears on Tuxedo Mask's head as the two Skull Bots carries on talking about vocabularies.

'Maybe I should leave,' thinks Tuxedo Mask. He leaves the two Skull Bots to their conversations, taking an exit to the left. Before long, the two Skull Bots notice Tuxedo Mask's absence and give chase.

Meanwhile -

"Is that robot yours?" demands the Police Chief

"That is correct." affirms Nagash

"Then hurry up and get your robot out of the way! It could hit a plane!"

Nagash looks at the Police Chief, apparently bewildered at what he has just been asked. 'That imbecile doesn't realise who he's messing with!'

The Praetor is becoming very annoyed. "Then surrender the city to me!" shouts he.

"What? What do you mean by that?"

Nagash gets his fingers ready into a clicking position "This is what I mean." he says as he clicks his fingers. This makes Missile Wrist fire his right missile at a police car and destroying it. This in turn, covers the Police in soot, as Missile Wrist retracts its missile back into its arm, reloading it.

"Hand over the city!"

"I'm done here... Get the mayor…" whimpers a very scared Police Chief.

"Then… your mayor will be… ME!"

Meanwhile-

"This looks like the place", declares Mina, casting a swift glance all around.

What is left of the once proud building lies strewn all over the area, with some pieces of debris still falling.

"You think?" replies Raye half-heartedly; her yes darting a sideways slant towards Mina.

Another boom shakes the place as they continue to approach the building. More debris rains down. Lita grabs her transformation pen and is about to transform, but is prevented from doing so quickly by Amy.

"Wait," she says; ushering the Scouts to an area underneath a fallen metal pipe. "It's far too dangerous to transform out there, we'd be too vulnerable in being hit with something. We need somewhere sheltered. Somewhere concealed," she decides.

Raye stops her suddenly.

"Shhh," she insists, "I can hear talking."

"…chance do you think you have? I can wipe out this entire puny planet in a matter of mere minutes, but for my…. entertainment…. I'd like to…." He slows to a stop. There is a moment of eerie, still silence, as if the debris decided to suddenly stop falling. As though everyone in the surrounding area had suddenly ceased to exist. The voice also stops for a few seconds.

"What the…" was all Mina managed before something grabbed her arm.

"Sssh!" hushes Rini; it turns out that she is the person who was sneaking about and who took hold of Mina. "He'll hear you!"

"Rini!" Mina scolds, not exactly expecting Rini to be here, "I thought you were going somewhere that _wasn't_ here!" She glares at the little pink-haired girl, who has just crossed her arms and is sticking her nose up, clearly in defiance.

"I was keeping an eye on you," she replies curtly.

"You mean spying on us?" suggests Mina in an angry whisper, even looking more cross than previously. Rini snorts and sticks her nose up even higher.

"Gee, I wonder where she could have got such a silly idea like that from," Raye breaks in, half sarcastically while eyeballing Mina.

Mina goes red and sinks into shadow.

_"Show yourselves!"_ comes the sudden demand from the top of the devastated building. All at once, the scouts realise that not only had Nagash probably sensed them during his previous speech, but now, he had heard them as well.

They all look at one another.

"Time to do what we came here to do," says Lita, with her transformation pen in hand again.

"I know you are there… down there below…" the voice of Nagash continues from above, "I can sense your presence, your… energies…" his words soon slow to a methodical crawl once more.

Rini grabs Lita's pen this time as the rest of the scouts took hold of their own.

"But don't you think we should go get Serena?" she pleads, "I know she's a ditz and all but she _is_ Sailor Moon."

"She's with Darien, Rini, you know that!" comes Raye's quick reply, "Let them have their time; we can take care of this creep ourselves!" Rini nodded in reluctant agreement.

"I'm waiting…." comes the taunt from above.

"Let's do this!" cries Lita as she and the other scouts thrust their pens in the air in unison.

Meanwhile-

Nagash's attention changes as he sees the Mayor coming to the area.

"Eh? What is your decision?" Nagash is currently very smug.

"Praetor Nagash! We shall not be ordered around by you!" replies the Mayor through a megaphone.

"Wrong answer!" says Nagash, while he clicks his fingers. Missile Wrist fires its missile into another nearby building. This time, blowing a hole into it; spreading dust everywhere. This has the effect of making everyone in the area either very worried or scared.

"How's that? Have I changed your mind?"

The Mayor stands still completely covered in dust from head to toe. The Mayor's eyes are wide open as he says, "That's actually the decision of our leader, the Prime Minister."

Nagash face falls as he is starting to get beyond annoyed "Missile Wrist, be thorough with the destruction of!"

"SHINE AQUA ILLUSION!"

"BURNING MANDALA!"

"SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!"

"VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!"

"What the!" says Nagash, as he turns his head and sees the attacks heading straight towards him. "Gahhhhhhhhhh!" yelps Nagash as he ducks quickly and lowers the Skull Mobile, just in time as the attacks go over him. He then looks over at his attackers.

"Who dares attack me? Identify yourselves?" demands a rather peeved off Nagash.

"We are the Sailor Soldiers. Douse yourself in water and repent!"

"In the name of the planet Mars, I will punish you!"

"And in the name of planet Jupiter, I will punish you!"

"Sailor Venus...strutting on stage!"

"And I am the little sailor-suited pretty soldier in training Sailor Mini Moon! In the name of the future moon, I will punish you!" said Sailor Mini Moon

"Ah... so you finally decided to come out of hiding, eh?" says Nagash as he stands up in the Skull Mobile with his head down, chuckling quietly as he brings his face up to reveal yet another smirk. "Well, well. It's about time," He turns his head towards the Skull Bot. "Missile Wrist, a new plan is in order. Get rid of these pests and make them wish they never spied on me."

"Acknowledged." Missile Wrist complies as he raises both of his arms and begins firing his missiles.

Elsewhere-

"Where's an ice pack when you need one?" moans Serena, as her hand is hurting from all the writing she had to do.

"When will you learn not to fall asleep in class while one of the meanest teachers is giving a lecture?" rebukes Luna.

"But Luna, it's so boring having to listen to him go on and on about that scientific gobbledegook."

Serena has finished her detention and is walking in the streets with Luna. Out of the blue, they see a large crowd congregating in front of a convenience store watching the TV's on display.

"Serena, I think you better check what this is about." Suggests Luna.

Serena carefully makes her way to the front of the crowd, only to see a pre-recorded message being shown from Nagash.

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" laughed Nagash just before the camera changes to see the Sailor Soldiers not faring too well against Missile Wrist's onslaught of missile barrages with his missile hands.

'The guys, they're going to need my help!' thinks Serena as she runs off leaving Luna behind.

'Nagash… I feel like I know him from somewhere, but I can't remember where,' thinks Luna as she turns to see that Serena has already left. "Serena, wait!" shouts Luna leaving the crowd feeling bewildered, because they do not know where the voice had come from.

Meanwhile-

"CRESCENT BEAM SHOWER!"

The beam travels from Sailor Venus' fingers towards the Skull Bot, but when it hit Missile Wrist, it didn't even make an impact upon its armour, rather it bounced straight off.

"Don't worry Venus, we'll just have to try harder. BURNING MANDALA!"

"THUNDER DRAGON!"

"VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!"

"Not even a scratch!" exclaims Sailor Mercury. "But how is that possible?"

Nagash lowers the Skull Mobile down so that it is beside Missile Wrist. He stands.

"You fools! You can't possibly destroy Missile Wrist in anyway; my Skull Bots have no weaknesses! This is due to their polycarbide armour - one of the strongest, yet rarest materials in the entire universe."

"How do we bust it open then?" asks Sailor Jupiter.

"Well it's easy… but I'm not telling you, OHOHOHOHOHOHO!" laughs Nagash.

Mercury looks up at Nagash defiantly. 'Everything has a weakness,' she reasons. 'And Nagash himself has said that this robot is easily defeated...the only thing left is seek out its Achilles' heel.' She takes her mini laptop computer and starts analysing the Skull Bot. Mars spies Mercury typing away.

"Good thinking, Mercury. We'll try to hold that 'thing' off while you find an opening. Jupiter! Venus! Let's go! If we attack it together, we might make a dent!"

Jupiter and Venus acknowledge Mars' suggestion. "Good thinking!"

"Ok...MARS SNAKE FIRE!"

"VENUS WINK SWORD!"

"SUPREME THUNDER!"

"Darn, it's still not working!" says Mars, somewhat dejectedly.

"OHOHOHO...weren't you weaklings listening to what I said? My Skull Bots **have** no weaknesses, and Missile Wrist here is no different! Try what you like, but you will never defeat it!"

"And it's too fast..." agrees Jupiter.

Nagash looks at the scene below him. 'This isn't as interesting as I thought it would be, considering...' he thinks.

Mercury looks up from the screen to see her fellow Sailor Soldiers feeling pretty down and out. 'If we can't match its speed...all we have to do, is to force it to match our speed ranges.' She ponders.

"SHABON SPRAY!"

Venus, Mars and Jupiter turn around to see Mercury obscuring the enemies' sight. They take a slight breather.

"So, Mercury. Did you find any weaknesses we can exploit?"

"I'm sorry, but the technology is beyond myself and the computer's capabilities. The only thing we can really do is to try to wear the robot out, which I highly doubt is possible."

"Wait a second...that Nagash guy, he controls Missile Wrist or whatever-the-thing's-name-is, right? What if we try to take him out instead?"

"Yes, it appears so. But, I think that he himself is quite the formidable foe."

"We have to try, right?"

As the Shabon Spray clears, the Sailor Soldiers prepare to attack Nagash instead, while trying to avoid Missile Wrist.

Sailor Mars takes aim at the Skull Mobile. "MARS SNAKE FIRE!"

However, Nagash has already predicted the Sailor Soldiers' next move.

"Nice try, but you'll have to try harder if you want any hope of defeating me!"

As Mars' attack fly at Nagash, he is unusually calm. At the precise moment the attack reaches him, he reverses her attack and makes it his own. Smirking at the Sailor Mars below him, he adds a little more to the attack. He pauses then releases the Dark Fireball. Sailor Mars is helpless below and there is little she can do to avoid the attack.

"Argh!" She screams at the Dark Fireball hits her and she collapses. The Dark energy has made her lose much of her energy. She slumps.

"Sailor Mars! No!" Jupiter whirls around to see a fatigued and injured Mars. "I'll show you...THUNDER DRAGON!"

"No, Jupiter! Don't!" Mars screeches out a warning but it is too late. Jupiter's attack has almost reached Nagash and there is nothing that will stop it.

This causes Nagash to smirk even wider. 'How pathetic. When will they learn?' He is still calm when the attack reaches him. This time, instead of reversing the attack immediately, he decides to save it for later. What he doesn't see coming, as he is momentarily distracted, is an incoming kick from Jupiter, trying to knock him out of the Skull Mobile. 'What the...!' He abandons his previous plan and uses the Dark Lightning against Jupiter. At such close range, Jupiter is hit instantaneously and at point blank. She falls gracefully from the air in what seems like an eternity.

"Jupiter!" Venus runs to the fallen Jupiter. "Why you...Nagash..." Venus is looking very angry. But before she can do anything, Nagash has decided to eliminate her for the time being also with a simple blast from his fingertips. A scream escapes Venus' lips as she is thrown back from the force of the blast. Her back hits the remnants of a building and it collapses on her.

Mercury looks at her fallen comrades. 'How...how could we...I...let this happen?' she muses. Sailor Mini Moon is nowhere to be seen. It appears that Mercury is all alone on the battlefield. Mars is the only Sailor Soldier remaining still conscious, but she is struggling frantically to keep it.

'I might as well finish poor little Mercury off now. The faster they are out of here, the better,' he deems. 'Then I'll finish the little annoying Mini Moon.' He gets out of the Skull Mobile and walks towards the frightened Mercury. He throws his cloak back to reveal a sword with a demonic-looking skull at one end of the handle with wings on the other end of the handle where the blade starts, in his hand. He raises it and strikes the ground. A shockwave results and it hits Mercury. It paralyses Mercury and she collapses.

"Oh Mini Moon...come out, come out wherever you are..." he taunts. Receiving no reply and not sensing any conflicting energies, he decides to end it all. "It's time for the big 'au revoir'!"

"Hold it, Skull-Face."

"SKULL-FACE? Who dares to insult me?" demands Nagash turning around to face the person who insulted him.

"Attacking a city on a peaceful day, disturbing people's lives for your selfish ambitions on top of that, is something that I can't forgive. I am the sailor-suited pretty soldier Sailor Moon! In the name of the moon, I will punish you!

"So, a new player enters the fray." voices Nagash as he slowly regains him composure. "Deal with her swiftly."

"Roger." affirms Missile Wrist as he faces Sailor Moon with both Missile arms in firing position.

"Aren't you going to give me a chance to move?" asks Sailor Moon anxiously.

"Let me think about that for a second… FIRE."

Missile Wrist begins another Missile barrage but this time it is aimed at Sailor Moon. Nagash flies away a bit so that he can survey the area.

"I like what I'm seeing."

Sailor Moon has just noticed the absence of the Sailor Soldiers.

"You guys...where are you all?"

"Sailor Moon, we're all over here."

"Sailor Mars?" she is very worried as the voice she heard was very weak. She takes a closer look at the surroundings. She sees a broken Jupiter, a paralysed Mercury, and Venus' legs sticking out from underneath a heap of rubble. She gasps.

"MOON HEALING ESCALATION!"

The power from the Silver Crystal emanates from her brooch and it heals all the Sailor Soldiers. The four of them rush over to Venus' side and commence removing all the debris, so as to free Venus from her rocky prison.

"I'm all right. Seriously. And thank you for freeing me."

The other soldiers smile at Venus. They still do not know where Mini Moon is.

Nagash, on the other hand has finished his surveying of the landscape. Back on the battlefield, turns to face his Skull Bot. "Missile Wrist, just take care of these fools anyway you like… just make it quick."

Upon hearing this, the Sailor Soldiers become very afraid. They wait, expecting the imminent end.

"He's getting ready to finish us off," Venus whispers.

"This is the end, isn't it? We haven't found any weak spots..." replies Mercury.

"But we're the Sailor Soldiers. We can't give up!" remarks Sailor Moon.

"We'll fight, to the very end." agrees Mars.

Missile Wrist, meanwhile prepares to attack. A figure appears on a nearby rooftop.

"Do not lose hope, Sailor Soldiers!"

"Huh? Who is...?"

It is Tuxedo Mask and Sailor Mini Moon is with him. The Sailor Soldiers look up in the direction of the voice. They see Tuxedo Mask and Mini Moon. It appears that Mini Moon had run off and took Tuxedo Mask directly to the scene. Tuxedo Mask speaks.

"So, you are the new threat to the peace of this planet. If you think you will be able to conquer this planet easily, you are gravely mistaken."

'Yet another weakling who thinks he can defeat me at my own game. At least the pace is picking up a bit,' Nagash contemplates.

Tuxedo Mask attacks Nagash. He jumps off the roof and produces his baton. He uses it in an attempt to disable Nagash. He is not fast enough however. Nagash blocks Tuxedo Mask with his Sword of Darkness.

"Is that the best you can do, Mask-boy?" Nagash jeers.

"Is that the best you can do, Skull-face?" Tuxedo Mask retorts.

Nagash scoffs. Tuxedo Mask strikes again. Nagash parries. The two are locked in combat, with Tuxedo Mask on the offensive and Nagash on the defensive, for the moment being. Whatever the attacks Tuxedo Mask launches, Nagash easily manages to match move for move. Due to the strength of Tuxedo Mask's blows, he is tiring fast. Before long, his blows become slower and weaker in strength. It is the moment Nagash has been waiting for.

During a momentary lapse in Tuxedo Mask's concentration and attacks, Nagash takes the opportunity to strike. He cuts, fast, deadly and with much precision. The cut slices Tuxedo Mask's baton into two. It falls to the ground, in pieces, useless. Nagash tightens his grip on his sword's handle and hilt and rams his elbow into Tuxedo Mask's stomach. He falls.

"Now that everyone is present and still, please allow me to introduce myself. I am Praetor Nagash, Imperial Ruler of the Skull Empire and soon, the future ruler of this universe" decrees Nagash before continuing "Now that the introductions are finished, let's get down to business once again, En guard!"

The Sailor Soldiers assume defensive stances in readiness for Nagash to make his move. They are in a close-knit formation, presenting a smaller target.

'Right where I want them.' thinks Nagash as a small but contented smirk slowly forms on his face.

"What is he waiting for?" whispers Sailor Mars.

Just as someone is about to reply, twin lasers shoot suddenly straight at them, making them break their stances and having to duck out of the way. Not giving any chance for a breather, Nagash strikes the sword's blade onto the floor, sending shockwaves across it.

Pain shoots through the bodies of the various people below. They groan and get up, carefully.

"It's now or never...we have to attack him, somehow. We can't take much more of this, we've lost much energy," Jupiter whispers to the others. The others nod in agreement.

"However, I think we should get rid of that robot first. Its size makes it more of a threat at the moment." Mercury argues.

"Tuxedo Mask and I will try to distract that _thing_ and maybe a joint attack from the rest of you?" Sailor Moon asserts.

"That seems to be a good plan," affirms Mini Moon.

"Are you ready, Sailor Moon?" Tuxedo Mask asks. Sailor Moon nods.

Missile Wrist attacks. A missile is veering towards Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. It misses, but as Missile Wrist prepares to retract its missile arm, the two of them jump in unison onto them.

"MOON SPIRAL HEART ATTACK!"

Of course, this attack has no physical effect on Missile Wrist. However, it is powerful enough to alert Missile Wrist that the two of them are on its arms. It aims for the nuisance...they are able to avoid it in time, but Missile Wrist in the process has put one of its arms out of commission.

"WHAT!" Nagash said as he watched utterly shocked at the loss of the arm on Missile Wrist.

"So...it can be its own worse enemy," observes Mercury. "Its armour makes it invincible, but now that we have an outlet on Missile Wrist to concentrate our attacks on, it should go down in a matter of mere moments."

"Ready?" - "Ready!"

"SAILOR PLANET ATTACK!"

The powerful attack is aimed at Missile Wrist's missing arm joint. It penetrates Missile Wrist's circuits, destroying it from within. The sheer force of the combined attack also has the effect of blowing the Skull Bot sky high. It also explodes.

"Yes! We did it!" The Sailor Soldiers below rejoice. Nagash is feeling severely irritated at this point.

"How dare they-"

Now that the Skull Bot has been destroyed, the Sailors focus on defeating Nagash.

"MOON SPIRAL HEART ATTACK!"

"PINK SUGAR HEART ATTACK!"

The attacks fly toward Nagash with great force, only to be halted in its tracks by Nagash's Sword of Darkness, which disintegrates it.

"I am not as weak as my creation that you destroyed. You have yet to taste my true power!" he scoffs at the Sailors' pathetic attempt to defeat him.

"Bu-But how?" whispers Sailor Moon, holding her ground, "When is he going to end this and leave?"

"When I say it does, that's when," Nagash whispers back, "Now for the final touch."

Nagash's sword disappears from his hands only to have a Staff appear in its place. This Staff is a cross without the top middle column but instead, with two spikes sticking out for about 10 centimetres from the middle. This has a metal eye in the centre of the cross.

"Now feel the power of my Bedlam Staff!" yells Nagash as a Dark Lightning bolt appears in the centre of the two spikes. Nagash brings this over his head as he spins it; he then stops it so that the staff's end is pointing at Sailor Moon and was about to throw the front of the staff forward when…

"Praetor, can we ask a question?" Decoe and Bocoe are both coming out of a lift, running towards Nagash.

"Spill it." demands Nagash.

"We have nothing to spill, Praetor" Decoe answers.

"It's a human euphemism," counters Nagash, rolling his eyes under his mask.

"What's an euphemism?" asks Bocoe.

Nagash's Bedlam Staff disappears as his cloak returns to its initial position.

"Why do I have to work with total-" fumes Nagash to himself before turning around to face Sailor Moon "We'll settle this at another time." he announces, before turning around and walking to the Skull Mobile with Decoe and Bocoe.

Nagash gets into the Skull Mobile and sits at the controls while Decoe and Bocoe stand to either side of him.

"Until next time," spits Nagash as he turns the Skull Mobile around and flies away from the building in the direction of his base.

Sailor Moon goes down to her knees with her face showing she is in complete shock. It is also at this precise moment that Luna and Artemis come out of the lift.

"How can this be possible?" observes Artemis in shock, at the sight of what was in front of him.

"Nagash is more familiar then I thought… but where have I heard his voice from?" Luna mutters to herself.

Later in the Citadel-

Nagash sits in his chair while viewing the monitors that he choose the Skull Bot from, Decoe and Bocoe however, are standing to either side of him with their heads lowered.

"Can't the either of you follow an order without screwing it up?" reprimands a displeased Nagash.

"We're sorry Praetor, but none of this would have happened if you'd programmed the human vocabularies and wise cracks into us" replies the Skull Bots in unison.

"The Free Will program in you both seems to be more complicated then I originally thought. No matter, I shall update your databases." said Nagash, not losing his anger; knowing that it was his fault "Those fools might have destroyed my Skull Bot but they have only experienced a mere portion of my power."

"Will this mean that you will use a more powerful Skull Bot next time, sir?" inquires Decoe.

"I will, but for the moment being; leave me be because I'd like to think to myself in private."

"Yes Praetor." As Decoe and Bocoe comply with their leaving, Nagash presses a button. This causes a picture to appear on all screens, which is of him and a shaded female kissing each other.

"I will avenge you, my beloved wife. The Sailor Soldiers will feel our VENGENCE!" vows Nagash as he clenches his fist.

()-

Please review and tell me of you thoughts of the fic.

Sorry about the long chapter by the way, I needed to have all the subscriptions and battles in this chapter, next chapter will be much shorter… hopefully.


	3. Decoe and Bocoe ATTACK!

I'm back and things are now officially going to heat up, as some say.

I'd like to start by thanking those who have reviewed Chapters 1 & 2; those who haven't reviewed, please send them in.

I'd also like to thank MoonKent and Starlus for writing their respective scenes in this chapter, and I'd also like to thank Janneia for editing any mistakes I've made.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon; the anime is property of Naoko Takeuchi, but I do own the Skull Empire and anything to do with it as well as the plot of this fanfic.

* * *

Episode 3: Decoe and Bocoe ATTACK!

* * *

At the Citadel

In the control room Decoe and Bocoe enter to see that it is only being illuminated by the sunlight entering through the windows.

"The Praetor has been awfully quiet the last couple of days," remarks Decoe, very quietly.

"He might still be gloating over his victory," replies Bocoe at the same volume.

Decoe and Bocoe both go over to Nagash's chair, only to see him asleep. This makes the two Skull Bots have sweat drops appear on their heads.

"He's asleep…what should we do?" asks Bocoe.

"I–" Decoe starts, before Nagash interrupts him.

"Decoe, Bocoe, go attack the city." orders Nagash, mumbling in his sleep.

"Let's go." Decoe whispers, so as to not awaken his sleeping master.

Bocoe goes over to Nagash's deck of Skull Bots and takes a random card out.

"This is a good Skull Bot," utters Bocoe, whilst looking at the illustration on the card. The Skull Bot displayed on the card is a Mandrill. It has multi-coloured lights on its shoulders and wrists – containing two miniature cannons. Its hands are larger than normal hands; it also has a large mouth for chewing anything that comes into contact. Finally, it has two connectors coming out from his back and going to the elbows.

"Spark Mandrill, one of my best choices!" he comments.

"The Sailor Soldiers won't know what hit them." Agrees Decoe as they leave the control room through one of three corridors. The one they took was the one to the left, at a diagonal to the desk. The other two exits are situated directly in front of the desk and at a diagonal, but to the right. Out of respect, they leave Nagash to his dreams and in deep slumber.

Elsewhere at the Hikawa Shrine

Darien, Serena, Mina, Lita, Raye, Amy, Rini, Artemis, and Luna sit outside Raye's shrine.

Serena moans. "Why did we have to get new enemies right about now? Everything was so nice and peaceful!"

"I think the more important question is: 'Where did these enemies, this Nagash, come from?'" Amy wonders aloud.

Mina thinks about this for a second. "Wait, what was it that he was yelling when we first got there? Something about a Skull Empire or something?"

Raye looks over at the two cats. "Do you know anything about what that is?"

Luna and Artemis glance at each other. "Well…" Luna hesitates. "I don't recall anything about the Skull Empire in itself, but the name Nagash…that strikes a bell somehow…"

Artemis nods in agreement. "It seems to remind me of something that I've heard of a long, long time ago…" He shakes his head. "But I can't remember exactly what, either!"

"Well, whatever it is, and whoever he is, there's one thing we know for sure," Darien says, looking around at the others. "He is a formidable enemy, and we need to be very careful."

Amy also nods. "I agree. We need to be in constant contact with each other, and it would be best if we could be in pairs as much as possible."

Lita makes a face. "Does that mean we have to be in detention with Serena?"

Serena glares back. "Hey! I'm not in detention that often! And I wouldn't be in detention ever if my teachers weren't so mean! Especially that Mr. Floodgate," she mutters.

"What are you talking about?" cries Raye. "You're always in detention!"

Rini agrees with a nod of her head. "Yeah. It's because you're so lazy!"

Amy interjects before Serena can reply and turn this into a full-blown argument. "Well, perhaps it's not quite necessary that we all have to be together all the time. But at the very least, we should always know where everybody is. This Nagash character could attack anytime, without so much as a moment's notice, and we need to be ready to fight back immediately if we have any chance of winning."

Darien raises a further point. "And in the meantime, Luna and Artemis should probably see if they can find any record on Nagash, which might jolt their memory. After all, the best way to fight your enemy is to get to know him thoroughly first."

The nine of them nod in agreement as it was the best option they had available to them. Standing up, they split and head for their respective ways.

Meanwhile at Juuban-cho Shopping Strip

Decoe, Bocoe and the huge walking mass of robotic ape, (which could only be identified as Spark Mandrill) walk down the occupied streets as if they were from a circus.

"How can people act like this after what the Praetor did last time?" wonders Decoe, in a low voice.

"Perhaps it's because he hasn't attacked in the last few days," suggests Bocoe.

"Uh, Guys?" Spark Mandrill speculates in a rough robotic voice.

"What do you want?" demands Decoe as he crosses his metal arms.

"I'm kind of hungry, where are the bananas?" the ape asks, causing Decoe and Bocoe to fall onto their backs in disbelief.

"You have to be kidding us! You're here to conquer this city for Praetor Nagash, not ask for bananas!" Bocoe almost yells.

"He's right!" continues Decoe, almost yelling himself as well.

"I want bananas!" demands Spark Mandrill, "Even a Skull Bot Ape like myself needs his bananas!"

Decoe and Bocoe turn their backs on the Skull Bot as they start talking to each other.

"Next thing you know he doesn't believe in violence," fumes Decoe.

"Then he'll commit it as acts of self defence," Bocoe seethes.

"I heard that you two, now as I recall, I am above the both of you in the chain of command." states Spark Mandrill with an air of authority.

"What!" Decoe nearly screams.

"Says who?" Bocoe demands to know.

"Why, that Praetor says so," Spark Mandrill replies casually. "Now fetch me some bananas before I rip you apart for not obeying a direct order!"

Decoe and Bocoe slouch away sulking, while three kids walk up to Spark Mandrill.

"Hey you!" the first one bellows.

"What do you want?" Spark Mandrill drawls with disdain.

"What's with the ridiculous costume you're wearing?" questions the second kid.

"This is not a costume, I'm a Skull Bot." asserts Spark Mandrill.

"If you are, then prove it." sneers the last kid.

"Very well." Spark Mandrill grabs a lamppost that is next to him. He bends it and uses it to destroy a bus shelter, thus scaring the kids away and making Decoe and Bocoe hurry back to see what is going on.

"Well so much for our guesses," says Decoe, defeated.

"He's definitely not a pacifist," Bocoe concurs.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the Shopping Strip, Serena, Rini and Luna are walking towards the chaos.

"But why?" Rini moans, "It's not like you're exactly some sort of health freak yourself, Serena!"

Serena continues to wear the wide, smug smile on her face. "Now now, Rini," she teases, almost singing, "you know too much candy will give you cavities, and then…" She suddenly turns to Rini, her fingers furled to resemble claws, "it's dentist time!" With that Serena laughs haughtily and starts making drilling noises.

Luna isn't amused. "Honestly Serena," she scolds as the other two continues to bicker and pull faces at one another, "you, suddenly taking the moral high ground on candy eating is…"

Luna is cut off as a very loud crashing sound is heard. Instinctively, they all duck for cover under the porch of the nearest shop as a car flies past them and smashes into a lamppost on the other side of the road.

"It's the enemy!" exclaims Luna as she looks out from beneath the cover, "this one looks strong; you'd better call the others!"

Serena nods, not needing to see for herself. She taps on her communicator.

"Everyone!" she cries frantically, "it's the enemy, and it's tearing up the main street! You'd better get here fast, and they're almost at the Mall already!" A collective "Ok," is heard as she shuts down the communicator.

She turns to Rini who is looking back.

"You ready?"

Rini nods.

"MOON COSMIC POWER, MAKE-UP!"

"MOON PRISM POWER, MAKE-UP!"

In a matter of seconds they both transform into Sailor Moon and Sailor Mini Moon.

"Luna," starts Sailor Moon, "you stay out of the way, we can handle this."

She and Mini-Moon step out into the open.

Luna sniffs. "And here I thought I was supposed to be the guardian…"

Across the street and down a little, Decoe and Bocoe are sitting on the roof of another car enjoying the destruction around them.

"He's doing a good job," comments Decoe.

"He's definitely doing a great job," agrees Bocoe. "The Praetor will be very pleased; this is the best entertainment I've seen since…"

"Since Missile-Wrist." finishes Decoe.

"Yeah, since Missile-Wrist," decides Bocoe, "except that, Spark Mandrill is way better."

He then stands on top of the car roof waving his fists, as Spark Mandrill charges into the side of a bank, creating a new 'entrance' to the building. In a puff of smoke and a mass of rubble, money starts fluttering through the air like confetti.

"Go Spark!" Decoe and Bocoe cheers, "Wreck the pathetic humans' little city!"

"Stop right there." A voice commands.

"H-huh!" Decoe and Bocoe stutter as they turn around to see…

"Just because banks don't always give us money when we want them to doesn't mean you can wreck them whenever!" Sailor Moon lectures.

"Even in the future, cars aren't supposed to fly!" adds Sailor Mini Moon.

"We stand for love!

"And we stand for justice too!"

"I'm Sailor Moon!"

"And I'm Sailor Mini Moon!"

"And in the name of the moon, we shall punish you!"

Their entrance also catches someone else's attention.

"Yeah, that's right Spark," urges Bocoe, "you know you want to; let them know what you think about them interrupting your fun."

Spark Mandrill turns at the request and picks up the nearest car.

"Um…." mutters Sailor Moon, "put that down!"

Mandrill is only too happy to oblige, as he hurls the car in the direction of Sailor Moon and Mini Moon.

"Why'd you have to ask him to do that!" scolds Mini Moon as they narrowly avoid the flying car, which smashes into the shop behind them.

"How was I supposed to know he'd actually listen to me?" defends Sailor Moon, panting as they run.

"Whoa, wait for it," mentions Decoe, looking at Mandrill's next move, "looks like the car was just the start."

"Yeah," concurs Bocoe, "this is starting to get interesting."

Having destroyed most of the cars near him already, Spark Mandrill decides to use the same attack he used on the bank earlier. Holding his huge fist out in front of him, he begins to charge at the two Sailor Soldiers.

"Aieee!" yell both Soldiers at once, as they leap in opposite directions to avoid the flying fist. The fist smashes into what was left standing of the shop that the car went through, and destroys it completely.

Just as Sailor Moon picks herself up from the ground, Mandrill emerges from the rubble unscathed. It leaps into the air, swinging on an overhead signpost with incredible speed.  
In an instant he manoeuvres himself to the other side of the street and swings again on a street lamppost, which creaks and bends as it takes the weight of his momentum. Right about this point Sailor Moon realises….

"He's coming back around this way!" she cries.

"BURNING MANDALA!"

As Sailors Moon and Mini Moon huddle together they hear the familiar cry of Sailor Mars as she bursts suddenly onto the scene. With her flaming rings she shoots right through the lamp post just as Mandrill was at the apex of his turn, causing his momentum to carry him, as well as the top half of the lamp post, spinning into yet another half-wrecked building across the street.

"Sailor Mars!" greets Sailor Moon, not able to contain her relief.

"Sailor Mercury!" yells Mini Moon, seeing that Mars and Mercury had appeared together.

"Having a hard time?" asks Mars coyly.

"Um… course not," dismisses Sailor Moon hurriedly, "we were just about to take care of it actually."

She prods Mini Moon.

"Uh, yes, just about to," she agrees, too quickly.

Decoe and Bocoe seem to be happy that more Soldiers are arriving.

"Now the entertainment lasts even longer!" says Decoe excitedly.

"Too right," his counterpart agrees, as a large brick whizzes past his head.

"Um… I think I'll just…" he leaps off the roof of the car and slides into the car through the window.

"Yeah," Decoe acknowledges, as he jumps in through the other window, "…sit in here." He finishes Bocoe's earlier statement.

Spark Mandrill emerges, unscathed yet again, from the new pile of rubble. As he cricks his head to the side as if to loosen his neck, Sailor Mercury steps forward.

"SHABON SPRAY!"

The area is suddenly blanketed in a pale mist, making it very hard to see anything.

"Idiots," sneers Bocoe, "they obviously have no idea Spark can see with infrared."

"Yup, the only ones who can't see now are them." gloats Decoe, rather pleasingly.

The 4 Sailor Soldiers stand back to back.

"Wh-where did he go?" asks Sailor Moon anxiously.

A clanking noise to their left is heard, followed by a whooshing sound.

"Get down!" shrieks Mercury, as large pieces of rubble from a building stream over their heads. As they open their eyes, they realise to their dismay that Mandrill has moved quickly behind his projectile and is almost on top of them, making a mechanical cackle noise as he advances.

Meanwhile at the Citadel

In the control room, Nagash paces back and forth around the side of his desk.

"Where are Decoe and Bocoe? I hailed them ten minutes ago and they still haven't answered." he remarks aloud before standing still at a podium. The podium has on it a screen and some controls. Replacing the one he originally had on his desk, a metre away in front, he decides: "Perhaps I better check one of the Scanners."

He presses some of the buttons on the controls on. This causes it to scan through every square inch of Tokyo until he himself sees the battle scene.

"What the!"

Nagash zooms in to see the Sailor Soldiers battling Spark Mandrill as Decoe and Bocoe watch in the background.

"I didn't say they could attack without my orders unless… Computer, playback the last hour in the control room."

He watches the replay of what happened the last hour. He sees himself sleeping and ordering Decoe and Bocoe to attack.

"So that's why they're attacking; they actually listened." Nagash observes, amazed. Nagash then proceeds to exit the control room through the same corridor that Decoe and Bocoe left through earlier.

Back at the Battle

Spark Mandrill is almost on them, and he was moving fast.

"Hey you!" comes another voice from behind Mandrill, "Why don't you try your luck with me instead?"

As everybody, including Mandrill, look over in the direction of the voice, they see a silhouette emerge from the fog into the shape of… Sailor Jupiter!

"Sailor Jupiter!" cries a, once more, very much relieved Sailor Moon.

Mandrill turns to face Jupiter, letting out his cackle. Bringing up his fist again he suddenly pounds it into the ground, sending electrical shockwaves in Jupiter's direction. She is too fast however, and leaps to safety.

The fog begins to clear by this stage. Jupiter isn't at all impressed.

"Trying to use electricity on me?" she fumes, "I'll show **you **electricity."

"I call upon my guardian planet Jupiter," she begins, and crossing her wrists, "I call for the clouds; bring a storm; send me your power!"

The small antenna on her tiara extends and begins collecting energy. Mandrill turns around to face this noisy little nuisance.

"SUPREME THUNDER!"

Sailor Jupiter sends a blaze of lightning straight at the Skull-Bot, surrounding him in a frenzy of electricity. Decoe and Bocoe starts laughing, but as an overload causes Mandrill's left hand to explode, they stop.

"Um... maybe the Praetor forgot to electromagnetically shield that part," Bocoe suggests.

Decoe uses the screen wash and wiper to clear the now murky windscreen.

As Mandrill stands looking at his severed hand, his cackling also stops.

"Almost done," says Mercury. The others turn and see her analysing Mandrill with her computer and visor. "I thought I'd take advantage of Jupiter's distraction," she explains as she types in data.

"Hey Mercury, how is it that you can analyse those Skull Bot things now?" Mars queries.

"I thought it might be a good idea to analyse Missile Wrist, the last Skull Bot we encountered. It was destroyed in the last battle but not enough so that there were no remains. I analysed them thoroughly, well, as thoroughly as one can when the specimen is in pieces. With the information in tow, I decided to update my computer's database. We might need it in the future and I guess, I was right." Mercury explains once more, looking up from the computer from time to time.

"Okaaaay…in a language I can understand please?" asks Sailor Moon, very much confused.

"She means she used information from the last battle to help us in this battle, dimwit."

"I am _not_ a dimwit!"

Meanwhile, Spark Mandrill is not amused with Jupiter. Letting out a roar, he holds out his right fist and begins to charge at her, but she leaps out of the way. Slightly drained from using so much power, her foot catches at the last possible second, a piece of debris sent flying by Mandrill's previous charge. Rolling onto the ground, she gets up and begins to hobble off.

"Well?" enquires Sailor Mars, looking at Mercury, "Jupiter's in trouble,"

"Almost," she replies, uploading the last few pieces of information to her computer.

"Well?" repeats Sailor Mars, getting increasingly worried as Mandrill hauls himself up again and noticing the slow-moving Jupiter with another cackle.

"Got it!" exclaims Mercury, "The connecting cables that are coming out of his back and going into his elbows, they're unshielded. If we take them out the power surge might be enough take him down."

"Right on it," tells Mars, as she dashes forward. However, she is not without doubts. 'Can I get behind him in time?'

Jupiter turns to see Mandrill advancing on her fast.

"Damn," she curses, not being able to move fast enough. It feels like a sprained ankle. She grits her teeth and prepares for the worst…

"PINK SUGAR HEART ATTACK!"

Everybody turns to see Sailor Mini Moon shoot a procession of pink hearts from her wand to the Skull Bot, which seems to annoy him immensely. It also seems to distract him just as much.

Sailor Mars winks at Rini, 'This gives me ample time to get in the right position… that's it – perfect!'

"BURNING MANDALA!"

Sailor Mars' spinning discs of flame cut straight through the vulnerable area of Mandrill that Mercury had pinpointed. He roars in rage and begins lurching about as electricity fills the air around him.

"This is…" realises Bocoe finally.

"Not good." finished Decoe. He tries to start the car that they were in.

"He's all yours Sailor Moon." rules Mars, as she runs over to Jupiter's position. Sailor Moon nods and takes aim with her Heart Rod.

"MOON SPIRAL HEART ATTACK!"

The huge, powerful hearts of the rod smashes into the back of Mandrill, where his power conduit is blown open by the blasts. A second later he explodes in a deafening roar, knocking more rubble over onto what is now left of the Skull Bot.

Mini Moon jumps for joy. "Yay, you did it Sailor Moon!"

Sailor Moon smiles. "You did well too, Sailor Mini Moon!"

"Oh great," Decoe seethes before turning to his counterpart, "Any ideas on what we should do now?"

"Yes… let's get out of here," suggests Bocoe trying to start the car again, "Do you have the PT?"

"I thought you had it," replies Decoe.

The two Skull Bots then realises who had the PT all along.

"Don't tell me Spark Mandrill had it?" Decoe speaks aloud as he realises.

"He did have it…" says Bocoe slowly.

The car starts, but as he steps on the accelerator it wasn't going nowhere.

"Going somewhere boys?"

Decoe and Bocoe look behind them and see Sailor Venus standing outside. To add further dismay they notice she had tied the back of the car up to a lamppost with her love-me chain, and is standing beside it looking particularly smug.

"Well, looky what we have here," gloats Mini Moon, as she strolls over.

"Great," Bocoe moans, "out of all of them it just _had_ to be the brat that gloated."

Mini Moon was feeling particularly confident now, standing in front of the car.

"You two had just better think about telling us what we want to know," she threatens, "or else…." She brings out her little heart wand and points it in their direction.

"I hate her," expresses Decoe blankly.

"I hope the Praetor kills her first." Bocoe snaps in agreement.

Sailor Moon then steps forward, with a stern look in her eyes and her hands on her hips.

"You said it Mini Moon," she backs up, "you boys had better start singing or else I'll just let her do what she wants."

Decoe and Bocoe look at each other.

"Sing?" repeats Bocoe, utterly confused, "Singing doesn't make sense to me."

"I haven't been programmed to sing," protests Decoe, "I don't understand the nature of the request."

Both of them scratch their heads in puzzlement.

Suddenly a whistling sound fills the air. As they look out the window they see that the Sailor Soldiers scattering.

"I wonder why this is?" asks Decoe, again confused.

Several missiles smashes into the street, sending debris and glass everywhere again, also smashing the windows of the car the Skull-bots are sitting in.

"IMBECILES!" yelled a more than familiar voice from above them, "GET UP HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Making sure the Soldiers are still under cover, as another missile explodes at the other side of the street; Decoe and Bocoe jump out of the car's smashed windscreen, onto the roof again, and clamber up a rope ladder that had been thrown down.

Sailor Moon peeks out from her hiding spot after a few seconds to see what is happening. The car that had the Skull-bots in it had been smashed up, and they were nowhere to be seen. The other Soldiers begin to emerge from their places of refuge when they see Sailor Moon walk out and look around.

As the smoke slowly disappears everyone looks up to see Decoe and Bocoe in the Skull Mobile with Nagash at the controls.  
"You may have defeated Spark Mandrill, but you have no idea of what is in store for you," laughs Nagash fiendishly before turning the Skull Mobile around and flying away back to the Citadel.

"Him again," rages Sailor Mars, tightening her fists, "that guy is really starting to get on my nerves with all his 'Praetor' talk." She is still supporting Sailor Jupiter, who is limping alongside.

"More importantly," says Sailor Moon as she watches the Skull Mobile disappear in the distance, "How are you doing Jupiter?"

Sailor Jupiter grins. "I'll be ok," she assures her, "it's just a little knock. More shock than anything." Sailor Moon smiles back.

"Well done everyone!" comes the exclamation from behind them. They turn to see Luna and Sailor Venus.

"You all worked very well as a team," praises Luna again, "if you each keep using your strengths like that we'll definitely defeat the enemy before too long!"

Sailor Venus winks.

"And the best part was," she reckons, gesturing with a nod, "we saved the Mall from getting wrecked!"

"Anybody want to go for some ice cream?"

"Oh, me, me!" replies Sailor Moon with a giggle, her hand shooting up in the air like she was in school.

Luna groans. "I take it all back," she complains.

Later at the Citadel

Decoe and Bocoe are standing in front of Nagash's desk while Nagash has his back turned to them, sitting in his chair.

"So you actually listened to my orders while I was asleep?" demands Nagash in a much calmer voice then his usual tone.

"We thought it was an actual… Praetor, what's happened to your voice?" Decoe asks.

"It seems more different than you're usual; it sounds human." Bocoe says, noticing the change in voice as well.

The chair swivels around to reveal a man of 19 years of age with platinum blonde hair that flows down along his face, to the sides with strands also going halfway down his back. He is wearing a black trench coat, a dark grey buttoned shirt, with an Edwardian bow, dark red trousers and black shoes. He smirks as he stands up.

"I told them they had no idea of what I have in store for them and I'm going to live up to my promise." smirks Nagash.

"Praetor?" Decoe and Bocoe pipe up, looking at him strangely.

"Indeed." The man before them turns back into Nagash's normal self, before asking, "What do you think?"

"They won't notice that you're their enemy." Bocoe states.

"Indeed." Decoe says in agreement.

Nagash begins to laugh aloud as he begins to contemplate his next moves.

* * *

Thanks for reading, now don't forget to review your thoughts.

Oh and before I sign off, a Mandrill for those who don't know is a kind of Ape/Baboon.

Signing off… now.


	4. Two Sides of a Coin

As I promised things are going to heat up from here on in and they shall.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, the anime is property of Naoko Takeuchi, but I do own The Skull Empire and anything to do with it as well as the plot of this fan fic.

I'd like to thank MoonKent and Janneia for the scenes that they did for me, Thank you.

On with the show.

()---

Early Afternoon, Tokyo---

()---

In the busy streets of Tokyo, among the busy citizens of the city, Praetor Nagash in human disguise is walking and carrying an umbrella with a curved red handle, black nylon covering and is using the point as a walking cane.

'Is this what life is like for these fools?' he thinks, 'Well, I for one am not surprised after what has happened so far.'

He looks left and right before slipping into a nearby alleyway; he looks left and right again before sighing as an evil smirk slowly appears on his face.

"Are you here?" he asks quietly.

"Yesss Praeeetor, heree assss ordered." An unknown figure answers in a hiss before stepping out the shadows to reveal a robotic dark green chameleon. The left of his red eyes is smaller than his right eye; he has a horn on his nose and razor sharp spikes coming out of his head and back. His tail has spikes at the end of his tail and his hands are that of a normal chameleon. Aside from those differences, it looked pretty much like a typical chameleon except that it stands on its own two feet.

"Excellent, I trust you know what the plan is?"

"Yesss Praeeeetor."

"Wait for my signal to carry it out."

"Of coursssse, Praeeeetor."

"Good, now prepare, Sting Chameleon, these Sailor Soldiers are nothing like you've ever faced before." orders Nagash as he turns around and walks out of the alleyway. He is being followed by Sting Chameleon who blends in with his surroundings travelling along the wall.

()---

Episode 4: Two Sides of a Coin

()---

Meanwhile---

Serena hangs onto Darien's arm adoringly. "Where are you taking me today?" she asks.

Darien smiles. "It's a surprise." He leads her to his car and helps her get in. Getting in the driver's seat, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a blindfold. "You have to put this on."

Serena raises an eyebrow teasingly, and turns so that Darien could tie it on. "I hope that this is good, Darien."

"I can assure you that you won't be disappointed."

Mamoru starts the car and begins to drive. About fifteen minutes later, he brings the car to a stop. He reaches over and takes off the blindfold.

Serena blinks then gasps. "Oh Darien!" She practically jumps on top of him. "How did you know that I wanted to have a picnic?"

She releases him and looks outside again. It was the perfect spot. The sun shone down onto a green clearing not too far from a rippling stream. It is surrounded by a small grove of trees that helped it to seem small and private. Serena sighs happily.

Darien helps her out of the car and brings out a picnic basket adorned with flowers. They set out a blanket, cups, plates, and lots of delicious food.

After the food is gone, Serena relaxes happily into Mamoru's arms. "Everything is so wonderful, Mamo-chan," she sighs.

Then her expression droops as she says, "Everything except our new enemy." She looks up at him. "Why do **they** always come and bother us? Why can't they just let us live in peace?"

Darien hated to see her so downcast. "I don't know, Serena." He tilts her chin up.

"But, whoever it is, and whatever they want, it will turn out all right in the end." He smiles reassuringly. "It always does."

Ever so slowly they draw closer together until finally, their lips meet. Darien pulls Serena closer to him, deepening the kiss, until a sudden rustling breaks them apart. They look over to the side of the clearing where a bush is shaking and wiggling. With a crash, Mina tumbles into sight, followed by Lita.

Instantly, Serena and Darien spring up onto their feet. "Mina! Lita!" Serena cries, stamping her foot. "What do you think you're doing?"

Lita shrugs sheepishly and points at the equally sheepish blond next to her. "It was Mina's idea."

Mina glares at her. "Oh, like you weren't completely interested in coming as well!"

"Well, I wasn't the one who listened in when Darien was talking about his plans for today's date!"

"So you think that makes you innocent?"

"Well, it makes me less guilty!"

"Well, I think that-"

"Enough!" Serena shouts, jumping between them. She glances back and forth between the two. "Hey, wait a minute; weren't you two supposed to be watching Rini?"

Mina and Lita glance at each other, but before they could answer, a crack can be heard and is followed by a shout above them. With a cry, Rini falls down from a tree and lands directly on top of Serena, knocking her to the ground.

Serena lets out a scream and shoves the younger girl away. "What do you think that you're doing?" she shouts, peeved.

Darien comes over and places a hand on her arm, his eyes asking her to calm down. Serena clenches her teeth, but takes a deep breath. Her next words come out calmly, if rather forced. "Rini, what were you doing up in that tree?"

"I, uh, I…" the pink-haired girl stammers. "I…couldn't see from the spot where Mina and Makoto were hiding!" she finally blurts.

Serena narrows her eyes at the two older girls. "So this is your idea of babysitting?"

"We couldn't find anything better to do to keep Rini occupied," Mina offers as an excuse.

"So you thought that you would spy on Darien and me **again**?"

Mina lowers her eyes. "It's not like you guys did anything interesting anyways…at least, not until five minutes ago."

Serena and Darien both blush bright red as they remember what they'd been doing right before Mina and Makoto's interruption. "Oh, you two are _so_ dead," Serena mutters under her breath.

Elsewhere---

Amy leans back in her computer chair and rubs her eyes. She then rises and goes into the kitchen to make herself a cup of hot cocoa. She isn't really cold, but the chocolate always helped her relax. And right now, she needed to relax.

Amy props herself up against a wall and sighs. It isn't all that often that she gets this frustrated over anything. Because of the amount of studying and reading that she does, she usually knows how to handle any problem that would come her way. But this time… Amy shakes her head as she pours hot water into her cup.

She had been trying to design a program that could track the origins of their new enemy, but so far, she has only been running up one blind alley after another. She didn't have enough information at present to accurately do any sort of proper tracking.

Amy returns to her place in the computer chair and cradles the warm cup in her hands. There has been many times when she had felt so useless as a Soldier. She would often feel that her knowledge and skills are the only things that she can contribute to the team. Her attacks are only useful for defence, distraction, or backup. It was her computer and her analytical skills that made her an integral part of the team. Or so Amy sometimes felt.

Logically, Amy knew that the other girls didn't view her that way; it was only something that she felt inside. 'And that's why I feel so frustrated now,' she realises. 'I feel that if I cannot pinpoint the location of our enemy, I would have let the team down. I feel as though they are truly counting on me to do this and it is my duty to accomplish it.'

Amy swallows the last of her cocoa with a sigh. Her life changed from the moment that she accepted the blue pen that allowed her to transform into Sailor Mercury. However, the change had been for the better. She had made new and wonderful friends who could accept her for who she was. She could help people constantly in ways that she never believed possible. And she had learned many deep and meaningful lessons along the way.

Amy smiles. Her work is worth it when she thinks of it in that way. With this encouragement in mind, Amy returns her fingers to the keyboard. She resumes her typing; her fingers and mind flying as she works, doing what she does best.

Some number of minutes later, at the Juuban-cho Shopping Strip ---

Raye is walking down the strip idly, her mind not really focusing on the bright sunny day, perfect for shopping. Her mind wanders as she reflects on the events of yesterday and the days prior.

/Flashback #1/

It was late afternoon. Raye was at the shrine's entrance, sweeping away the fallen leaves diligently, as she often does. She paused for a moment to take a breather. Looking up towards the late sun in the sky, she shielded her eyes and basked in the dying warmth. Looking back down, she noticed a shady and suspicious character run about and up the steps. As the figure drew near, she recognised the person.

"Chad? What on earth are you doing!" She yelled angrily.

"Shhh!" Chad placed a finger on his lips and tried to shush her. "They'll hear you!"

"Who'll hear me? And why on earth are you so late in coming back here!"

"I was at a gig…"

"That ended ages ago!"

"We'll talk once we're inside all right, Raye?" He pushed her towards the shrine hurriedly.

"Can't you take that hideous disguise off?" She leaned forward and took the shades off.

"**OH MY GOD! It's Chad Kumada!"**

A whole barrage of similar shouts can be heard from the bottom of the shrine's steps.

"Argh! They found me! Bye Raye, gotta go!" He runs towards the doors, his arms flailing.

"Huh?" Raye is left there, confused.

As she turned around to continue her duties, the sight of a whole crowd of crazed teenaged girls greeted her.

"What!"

"**CHAD KUMADA! WAIT!"**

The crowd of girls ignored Raye but headed for Chad's direction. Unfortunately, Raye was in the way. Soon, she was trampled underfoot by every one of Chad's rabid fan girls. After that humiliation, Raye got up slowly onto her feet. Her body was sore all over and her outfit was all dirty. She sighed.

End Flashback #1

/Flashback #2/

The rabid fan girl "attacks" have become more and more frequent. Raye and Chad sat inside the shrine, hidden from Chad's fans. Raye had been very happy when Chad got his first big break and Chad's talents were finally appreciated but lately, his sudden fame had gotten out of control.

Both Raye and Chad became more and more stressed each day as the fan girls persistently try to visit Chad. It no longer helped very much if he wore a disguise when he went out. Having acquired stalkers, they had little privacy anymore.

Fed up and saddened at the state that Raye and himself were in; he decided this day to tell Raye and her grandfather that he was moving away from Hikawa shrine and moving far, far away from Sendai Hill. At least, until the rage died down and it was safe to return.

"Raye, I'm not sure how you will take this but I've decided that I should move out. Just temporarily…" He added after he saw the look of dismay on Raye's face. "You and I both know that none of here are getting enough sleep, what with my fans and all. I'm sorry but right now, I think this is the best solution."

He looks down. "Ever since I got that big break, it's been nothing but trouble. It's all my fault… At least this way, I can make up for it…"

"Don't be silly, Chad. This isn't your fault! It's great that your talents were finally recognised and you're making it big as a rock star. You can stay, Chad. I'm sure the fuss will die down sooner or later!"

"But how much longer do we have to put up with this? I don't know how much more you or your grandpa can take. Don't worry, Raye… I'll be back soon, I promise."

End Flashback #2

'Why Chad? Why did it have to be that way? _Why?_ It's always why…' Raye thinks.

She is deep in thought and does not notice that there are people in front. Ten metres in front of her, Nagash stands patiently, by himself, his left hand seemingly rubbing his ear but is in actuality communicating with something…or someone.

'Excellent, Sting Chameleon is in position; all I have to do now is to give the order.' He thinks as he lowers his arm back to his side and a small smirk grows on his lips.

Raye is still walking, not paying heed to her surroundings. Nagash is not paying much attention to his surroundings either. The two walk into each other and fall backwards. Shook up, she recollects herself, stands up and dusts herself off. Looking towards the person she knocked over, she notices the disguised-Nagash's umbrella laying some way away from its owner.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to bump into you like that. Err… why are you carrying an umbrella with you, it's a **sunny** day?" she inquires.

Nagash gets up and dusts himself off before picking up his umbrella.

"It could start raining, just like that," he says, clicking the fingers on his free hand.

"But there isn't a single cloud in the sky," Raye counters, raising an eyebrow.

"I've never actually thought that about that, really," Nagash replies, scratching his head to try and blend in with the humans a little more. "In fact, I never even bother to check the weather forecasts. Most of the time they're boring to watch or inaccurate."

"That's true. Sometimes they can be way off. Take the Tuesday before last for example. The forecast did say that it would be sunny but it rained cats and dogs… I suppose after _that_ forecast, carrying around an umbrella would be sensible."

"Yes… after that incident, I decided to carry around an umbrella."

Suddenly, Raye's eyes light up. "I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier. I am Raye Hino. Is it too much to inquire who you are?"

"No, not at all, Raye. My name is Daniel, Daniel Uiatsu." Nagash lies, very convincingly.

"Pleased to meet you, Daniel." Raye gives a bow. Daniel does the same but his bow is not as deep.

"Nice to meet you too, Raye."

"Hope you have a nice day and the next time we meet… hopefully, I won't knock you over." She smiles warmly.

"Yes, me too." Daniel returns the smile, but his eyes are just as cold as before. 'Stupid human… she won't know what hit her when I execute my plan…'

The two walk off in different directions.

Sometime later---

"Raye?"

Raye turns around at the mention of her name. Her eyes scan the people in front of her, searching for the person who called her name. An arm waving in the arm catches her attention.

"Raye! It's me, Serena!"

Serena comes bounding towards Raye.

"Oh hi, Serena. Weren't you supposed to be with Darien today?"

Serena blushes. "How did you…know?"

Raye has a look of disbelief on her face. "Mina asked earlier if I wanted to _spy_ on you, as usual. That, or to ask for a fire-reading. What did you do, give her your 'timetable' or something?"

Serena pouts. "You're so mean!"

Raye rolls her eyes. "So, where's Darien?" she asks, repeating her earlier question.

"He's off buying me something to eat. All the foods I love best…" She trails off, her mind obviously elsewhere.

Raye sweat-drops. 'Typical…'

Suddenly, the two girls' expressions turn deadly serious.

"Did you feel that Raye?"

"I did. It's _that_ again."

The two turn sharply towards the source of menace. Meanwhile, above them on a balcony, Daniel watches over the city. Satisfied that the timing is perfect, he gives the signal.

'This should provide some entertainment.' He thinks.

Sting Chameleon acknowledges the signal and begins his rampage. His spiked tail flicks backwards and forwards, smashing into the surrounding architecture, crushing the foundations. The razor sharp spikes from his head and back are ejected in a flurry and these penetrate through various objects, obliterating or reducing each one. The amount of damage he is causing is great and only continues to escalate. Sting is invisible and as such, is wreaking havoc without anybody locating the source.

However, Raye and Serena are not going to let this minor disadvantage get in their way.

"We need to transform and fight this new threat that that Nagash guy unleashed on our city!" Serena urges.

"Yes. How about in the alleyway other there?" Raye suggests.

Serena nods and the two head for the said alleyway. Content that nobody is in sight, they transform.

"MARS STAR POWER, MAKE-UP!"

"MOON COSMIC POWER, MAKE-UP!"

Sailor Mars cautiously walks out of the alleyway and seeing that everything is fine for the time being gives the all clear for Sailor Moon to come out. However, Daniel, from his viewpoint on the balcony is in a prime position to observe a lot of things. The two Sailor Soldiers neglected to look up before transforming and as such, he witnessed Raye and Serena's transformations.

'Hmm… so, that weak human girl I bumped into earlier is a Sailor Soldier. It also appears that these Sailor Soldiers are nothing more than children,' He scoffs quietly to himself. 'Earth is going to need more than children to prevent my plans from fruition. Let's see how they handle this new threat.'

"We should warn the others. We're going to need their help, on the double!"

"I'm already on it." Sailor Moon plays with her communicator. "Guys? This is Sailor Moon. We have a problem here. We've got ourselves another pest. Come quick!"

The heads of all those contacted give a solemn nod.

"Ready? Let's go!"

"Halt!" Sailor Moon cries, addressing the enemy, Sting Chameleon. "How dare you interrupt the lives of the people of Tokyo with your petty destruction! I am the sailor-suited pretty soldier, Sailor Moon! And in the name of the moon, I will punish you!"

"Ruining such a fine day, I cannot forgive you. In the name of the planet Mars, I will punish you!"

"Brave wordssss from onesss so young…but do you have the ssstrength to back it up? Nobody hasss defeeeeated meeee." Sting Chameleon hisses. Sting switches between being visible and invisible to confuse the Soldiers, all the while moving to change its position.

"Well let us be the first. FIRE SOUL!"

Sting dodges and moves to a position behind and above Sailor Mars.

"Impressssive… but you are too sssslow, my dear." He unfurls his tail and sweeps Sailor Mars back into a wall, hard.

"Oof…"

"Sailor Mars! You are going to pay for that, whatever you are. MOON SPIRAL– Eep!"

Sting does not let Sailor Moon finish her attack. He ejects more of his spikes and sends them in a shower towards Sailor Moon. She has to stop her attack in order to dodge the incoming spikes.

"Aah!" she shrieks, jumping from one spot to another, in a bid to get out of harm's way.

Sting utilises this opportunity to pick up Sailor Moon with his tail and flings her around, introducing her to a world of hurt. After a while, he grows tired of this and throws her into the same wall as Sailor Mars is in before picking the two of them and damaging more buildings.

Decrepit and weak, the two Soldiers struggle to free themselves from the rubble that became when they made contact with what was once a serviceable wall. Morale dropping, their only hope now are the other Sailor Soldiers.

From his viewpoint on the balcony, Daniel snickers. 'Well…it seems that I gave these _Sailor Soldiers_ too much credit after all… they don't seem to pose that much of a threat in smaller numbers. "Divide and ye shall conquer", I've heard. I must think this over.' He reasons.

"Sting Chameleon… now would be a good time to finish them off. The faster we pick these Soldiers off one by one, the better. The lesser a nuisance they will be, the better. Go!" Daniel whispers into the communicating device between Sting and himself.

"Yesss…of courssse Praeeetor," is the reply. "Farewell, Sssailor Soldiersss."

He shoots more spikes at the fallen Soldiers. Fortunately, the spikes never reach the two, for:

"SHABON SPRAY FREEZING!"

The spikes are frozen and fall towards the ground, useless.

Furious at his failure, Sting demands: "Who'sss there!"

The other Sailor Soldiers have arrived at the scene of the commotion.

"I am the little sailor-suited pretty soldier in training, Sailor Mini Moon! For what you have done to this pretty place, in the name of the future moon, I will punish you!"

"My, my. Sssuchhh big wordsss coming from sssuch a sssmall runt."

Sailor Mini Moon sticks her tongue out at him. He laughs mockingly.

"And in the name of the planet Jupiter, I will punish you!"

"You corrupt villain, douse yourself in some water and repent!"

"Hn. More idiotsss to deal witch…" Sting is clearly irritated.

Mercury searches for Sailor Moon and Mars. Having located them, she realises that this enemy will be just as hard to defeat as the ones that preceded it, if not harder.

'Well…it's time to see if the fruit of my labours with pay off. I've been updating my laptop industriously with new information each time we face off against one of these Skull Bots. Let's see if I can apply the data in this situation.' Mercury thinks. 'In addition… let's see if I can obtain enough stats to successfully compile and write that program I've been dedicating the majority of my time to. But before then, I can only observe.'

"It's time we brought this lizard down, wouldn't you agree, Jupiter?"

"Yes. SPARKLING WIDE PRESSURE!"

"CRESCENT BEAM!"

Sting merely becomes invisible and blends in with his surroundings, changing direction constantly, evading Jupiter and Venus' attacks.

"Nicee try, _girlsss_. But you're too ssslow…" He scorns their efforts.

"Well Mr Lizard, let's see how you like this! PINK SUGAR HEART ATTACK!"

"I'm a _chameleon_, ignorant fools!" Sting spits angrily as he stops moving.

Seizing their chance, Jupiter and Venus attack jointly.

"CRESCENT THUNDER!"

Sting, who was arguing with Mini Moon fails to notice the opening he left and is hit directly with Jupiter and Venus' joint attack.

"Yes! We scored a direct hit!"

"Wait, there's barely a scratch on him!"

"That'sss correct. Sorry to disssapoint you girlsss, but the likesss of you cannot defeeeat me. I'm out of your league. You might want to rethink your method of approachh." He ridicules the Soldier's attempts. "Your feeeeble attemptsss will do little to fazeee me. It would take a hundrred yearsss more to make a dent in my sturrrdy body armour. And you were lucky to ssscore a hit, next time you won't be ssso lucky."

A sharp intake of breath from the Sailor Soldiers is apparent. Daniel laughs softly at the Soldiers from his position.

'The ignorant fools. Their attempts to defeat Sting are so pathetic that it is hardly worth my time in observing them. However, this battle might reveal to me more of their weaknesses that I can exploit in the future. I'm willing to sacrifice Sting for this "greater good". Now I wonder if this is all a big mistake.'

'A direct attack is useless,' Mercury ponders. 'Time for my laptop to analyse this chameleon. I think I have enough data to be able to find some weakness. There has to be one! I just have to know where to look for it.'

She begins to type furiously into her laptop, inputting vital information, hoping that the laptop is able to pick up something that she herself was unable to. Her eyes move rapidly across the screen, reading and interpreting the results that streamed by.

'Almost there… huh?'

She looks up, along with the other Soldiers to see Sting's tail begin flicking and sending spike showers in every which direction. Even though her calculations are almost complete, she is forced to scatter and disrupt her interpretations to avoid injury.

'Finally, this is becoming more interesting and much more amusing.' Daniel remarks to himself, all the while making sure to keep out of the Soldiers' line of sight.

Recovering from her sudden movement, Mercury glances at her laptop. Fortunately, the information is still there and intact.

'Let's continue then. Let's see now. If…' She continues to type at a furious pace. "I've got it! Jupiter, Venus, Mini Moon! Sting Chameleon's weakness is its left red eye!"

'I'll go tend to Mars and Sailor Moon.' She adds, thinking to herself.

"Thanks Mercury!"

Mercury smiles, content that she has been of some help towards the group. Up on the balcony, Daniel frowns.

"It seems that I have underestimated that Mercury. Physically, she is not much of a threat… but her intellect and that infernal laptop of hers more than makes up for it. Perhaps I should isolate it from her at a later date?" He comments quietly.

"VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!"

Venus gives a sound of joy as her attack makes contact with Sting's tail.

"Got'cha!" She exclaims, oblivious of the robotic chameleon's next intended move as it turns its head to face her.

"I know I have, sssstupid girl," he hisses before promptly launching his tongue at Venus' ankles.

"What the-!" She screams before being flung abruptly into the air. She lands messily.

"Sailor Venus!"

Before Sting can make another attack however, a blood red rose is thrown and temporarily paralyses him.

"What is it _now_?" he demands.

It is Tuxedo Mask but he does not reply, instead he chooses to attack with his baton.

"It's that Cape Boy again. Hasn't he anything better to do than interfere!" Daniel mutters.

"Take thissss, foolishhh human!"

Sting launches his tongue at Tuxedo Mask's ankles but it is blocked by the baton. Tuxedo Mask pulls on it, ensuring that Sting's tongue cannot retract.

"Now girls! Attack him while he's busy!"

Hearing the request, Jupiter, Venus (having now recovered) and Mini Moon nod at each other.

"CRESCENT THUNDER!"

"PINK SUGAR HEART ATTACK!"

Sting Chameleon is hit directly in his left eye – his Achilles' heel. The Sailor Soldiers' attacks cause his inner circuitry to short-circuit and his body is overloaded with excess energy inside. His system can no longer take the strain and he is destroyed from within.

'We did it! Yes!"

The Sailor Soldiers below are celebrating their latest victory. Daniel/Nagash however, watches on with disdain.

'So, they've won this one, but no matter, because I have… no, I know what's to come and when the next time they appear, I will be ready and Earth will be ready for the taking.' Daniel thinks before walking off down into an alleyway and teleporting back to the Citadel, unnoticed.

Much later---

Serena wakes up in her bedroom, on her bed. Her friends, save Raye are sitting around her and the two cats, Luna and Artemis are also present.

"Did you guys bring me back here?" Serena asks.

"Yes, Darien carried you back." Lita tells her.

Serena smiles at Darien, giving him a look of gratitude. Darien returns her smile with a warm one of his own.

"So Luna, Artemis, have you guys uncovered anything about the Skull Empire or Nagash and whatever?" Serena inquires.

"Unfortunately no. The most that we've been able to find are vague references and when I say vague, I mean _very_. There is very limited information on the topic, it seems."

"Is there anyway we could obtain more information?" Mina wonders.

"I'm not sure. The only place I can think of that would have any useful information would be the Royal Archives in the time when the Silver Millennium existed. However, those sources would have been reduced to dust by now." Artemis interjects.

"We could ask Puu if we could go back in time, couldn't we?"

"That would be one possibility…but I don't think it would be that easy."

'No…nothing is ever that easy.'

()---

See you next time, Don't forget to review, please.


	5. Giga Emerald, Envy

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, the anime is property of Naoko Takeuchi, but I do own The Skull Empire and anything to do with it as well as the plot of this fan fic, I also do not own any Japanese TV channels.

Before I continue I'd like to add this, the Skull Bots, well some of them are based of the Mavericks from the Megaman X games series while the Giga Emeralds are based of the Chaos Emeralds from the Sonic the Hedgehog game series, Decoe and Bocoe are based of the robots of the same name from the Sonic X anime series.

---()---

It is a typical day for the crew who work at the construction yard. It is a bright and sunny day, a plus in the crew's opinion. It is almost time for a break. A break would be welcomed; however, work is also just as important. Whistling a tune, a worker is inside a JCB Digger and is busy at working away at the ground's surface when he hits somewhere.

Curious, he sticks his head out from behind the glass and takes a closer look, while keeping his hands firmly on the controls. Knowing that something is in the way, he tries to clear the dirt a little further for a closer inspection. Upon seeing a glimmer of bright green, he decides to tap it with his machine. However, upon contact, the Digger starts vibrating violently and he loses control. It goes berserk and promptly starts to destroy existing construction. Panicking, he abandons the controls and makes a leap for it, not wanting to injure himself, which at the moment seemed quite possible.

As he hit the floor outside, the Digger moves of its own accord for a while before shivering to a halt. The worker is looking at his co-workers, questioningly and in confusion. The looks on his co-workers faces reflect his own.

---

Episode 5: Giga Emerald, Envy.

---

---Elsewhere--

A nice afternoon is best spent studying after all! Unfortunately, none of the other girls agree with Ami's philosophy. The six of them, Rini included were at Darien's apartment studying. Or, at least, they were trying to. Somewhat bored with studying, Rini and Serena engage into yet another minor skirmish over their favourite thing, ahem, person in the whole world – Darien.

"Let go of him, he's mine!" Rini whines, whilst pulling Darien towards herself.

"No, he isn't! He's _mine_. And so, I get to hug him, not you!" Serena contradicts and tugs Darien's arm towards herself.

"Nuh-uh! Mine! Mine!" Rini yells, pulling Darien's arm back towards herself.

"Oh, grow up, the both of you. Unlike you, some of us are actually trying to study!" Raye scolds after seeing Rini and Serena at it _again_.

"But Raye… she's the one who started it!" Serena moans.

Raye rolls her eyes and the others join her in exasperated sighs. What were they to do? This happens all the time, it was best to let the two of them resolve their own issues. Their concentration disrupted, and it was clear that they were not going to regain it, seeing as the same old "Rini vs. Serena" argument over Darien was still not going to be ended any time soon, Mina did the one thing that any sane person does in such a peculiar situation. Turn on the TV and block out the voices of the two girls arguing behind her.

"Oh, bleh, news. There's never anything interesting on that channel."

Mina promptly flicks over to the next channel, only to be greeted with another news report, of the exact same topic as the previous. Not giving up that easily, she flicks to another channel. And again, and again. Soon, she gets flustered and turns the TV off and throws the remote in some distant corner. Hearing the sound of the remote impacting on the floor, Amy looks over to see Mina hugging her knees and pouting.

"What's wrong?"

"There's nothing interesting to watch on TV except news reports. Every channel shows the exact same thing. And I can't concentrate over the two of them-" Mina gestures towards Rini and Serena, still in their tussle, "yelling their heads off."

"News? On every channel? That's odd."

"Yeah, it is." Lita pipes up.

"It might be quite important if it's appearing on every channel."

Walking over to the distant corner where the poor remote was flung, she turns on the TV again. As scenes of a construction site come into view with many a news reporter asking a crew worker what had happened earlier, the four girls sat in front of the TV absorbing the news and listening to the shocked recount of the worker. Rini and Serena had however, progressed to pulling at Darien's arms in some sort of tug-of-war. Darien's expression was of one that said, "Somebody please shoot me".

"Oi, Serena, you have to take a look at this!"

"Darien is mine, you little fungus!"

Lita sweatdrops, clearly, this was not the reply she was hoping for. After a few more seconds of the duo trying to pull poor Darien's arms off, Serena and Rini look towards the TV.

"The Police Department have found the gem responsible, but as to what it is, they have no clue." The news reporter on the TV begins.

"It appears to be some sort of gem. However ordinary it may appear, it emits some sort of electrical waves that has the ability to demagnetise machinery.

"It is believed that the television set that you are currently watching is or will be affected by this.

"The noise that you are seeing on the screen is also due to interference of the broadcast from the gem's energy.

"This is the appearance of the troublesome gem." The news reporter announces, holding a picture of a bright green emerald.

---Meanwhile, at the Skull Empire Citadel---

"No radiation has been detected around the area of the site." The news reporter continues. "But just what made this bright green gem affect the machine?"

Praetor Nagash watches the report while smirking to himself.

"Scientists are currently working hard to discover what it is. Erika Asagiri for TV Asahi." As the reporter finished her report, Nagash presses a button on his console to return the screen to its menu.

"Well well well, if it isn't a Giga Emerald… so those 'Guardians' thought they could keep them from me," he muses to himself before turning his chair to face Decoe and Bocoe, "My cards."

"Here as ordered," Decoe announces, bringing the tray with the cards towards Nagash.

"Which one will you choose?" asks Bocoe.

"Which will it be…" the evil warlord mutters to himself as he takes the deck of cards and flicks through them between his hands making viewing every one simple and smirks.

Thumbing through them, he slowly loses his smirk and frowns as he cannot decide which one to use. "Which shall I use today? This shall decide it."

Getting up from his chair, he walks over to the computer console and uses the same process that he used to select Missile Wrist to choose the new Skull Bot. Taking the card the machine offered, he declares:

"Storm Eagle, the perfect choice."

---Minutes later in another part of the Citadel---

Nagash walks towards the Skull Mobile but before he hopped in, he turns to see a pair of eyes glowing in the dark.

"I am ready as always, my Lord." The figure states, simply.

The figure steps out from the shadows to reveal a humanoid eagle with great wings; a crooked beak to match with its piercing eyes; a turbine in place of a left arm and its feet are those of an eagle.

"Excellent." Nagash decides, before climbing into the Skull Mobile and activates all the controls.

As the hangar bay door opens, a gust of wind blows throughout it as both Nagash and Storm Eagle fly out. Once away from the Citadel, Nagash begins to contemplate.

"Once I have the Giga Emerald, executing my next plan will be in order and then those Sailor Soldiers will not stand a chance." he smirks before laughing aloud.

---Much later, Elsewhere---

Being the curious object that it is, the Giga Emerald has not been moved very far from the construction site that it was found. A large crowd has built up around the site since the news report and many people are looking on in curiosity. It has not been moved to a safer place because it would affect man-made security systems and so, is still available for viewing by the public.

Meanwhile, the news crew are still reporting live to the people watching at home as scientists onsite have been unearthing more and more about the particular properties of this gem and a few have taken small scrapings as sample to take back to the lab to analyse it further. The transformed Sailor Soldiers are watching this scene from afar, on the rooftop of a nearby scraper. Tuxedo Mask and Luna and Artemis, the two guardian cats are also with them.

"I don't see why we have to even be here, Luna," Sailor Moon complains. "What's so important about this gem anyway? It's _bright__green_, not black, or really dark. It's not like it's a gem belonging to some evil creeps or something!"

"You are here because it is your duty. The news reporter spoke of strange things happening around the gem and we should find out what it is. To see whether it is merely 'harmless', that is, it is quite natural and it is possible by nature to make these things, if rare in number or 'dangerous'. That is, to say that the presence and nature of such a gem can create disasters and chaos, to put it simply." Luna rebukes.

"And you know, this 'gem', it reminds me of something. Something from long ago. I can't remember if it is actually dangerous or something in passing. I just don't remember, and Luna probably, doesn't either." Artemis adds.

"That's what you always say." The Sailor Soldiers choruses, annoyed.

"Why are your memories so patchy, anyway? Whenever something important happens, you guys always say it rings a bell but you can't quite place it." Mars fumes.

"It was Queen Serenity's decision to do so. No doubt she knew best, as we've told you before." Luna repeats, from memory.

"Whatever." Raye interjects, very much annoyed.

Nagash and Storm Eagle, meanwhile, have also arrived at the scene. They are both hovering/flying in the air, just high enough so that the crowd below do not notice them, but also just low enough so that the Sailor Soldiers do not notice them below. And to Nagash and Storm Eagle, the Sailor Soldiers on top of the skyscraper are just mere specks. Looking down, Nagash gazes at the Giga Emerald, currently in the hands of a faceless scientist.

"Such a beautiful and powerful gem, and most worthy of my cause. Taking it away from the insignificant humans below will be very easy. Almost like taking candy from an infant."

Before he made his move, however, he senses that something is amiss, not quite the perfect situation he had surmised earlier. Looking towards his left, he sees several figures on the rooftop of a nearby building, piquing his interest.

"Hmm… who are they?" he asks, to nobody in particular. Pressing the side of his mask to magnify the view, he sees the Sailor Soldiers and Tuxedo Mask at 150 magnification.

"Them, again? When will they give up?" Nagash growls, he slamming his fists down on the console, never having quickly regained his composure, he orders: "Storm Eagle, blow them away."

"Affirmative, my Lord." Storm Eagle acknowledges as he changes his course.

'With them out of my way, I can now begin Stage Two of my foolproof plan,' Nagash thinks.

Storm Eagle, being the obedient Skull Bot, flies up towards the roof of the said building and towards the distant figures, which get closer and closer by the second. The 'older' Sailor Soldiers are still complaining about why they have to do this, as Mini-Moon notices something below, flying towards them.

"Aw, look, it's a big birdie!"

"What?" The Soldiers exclaim, puzzled.

"Kyaaaaaa!" Mini-Moon cries, as she notices that the bird is not just a 'birdie'. Scrambling back, she falls down on her rear end.

"That's no bird, watch out, Mini-Moon!"

Having reached his destination, Storm Eagle breaks his flight abruptly, sending gales of wind in every which direction. He perches on the edge of the roof, in plain view of the Sailor Soldiers and their allies, and directly before the shocked Mini-Moon.

"I'm not a 'birdie'. Nor any bird. I am… **the** Storm Eagle," he states in a monotone. "For this insult, and for the Praetor, I will annihilate you."

Crossing his arms, he flaps his great winds and creates even greater gusts of wind to blow the Sailor Soldiers away. Screaming as they lose their footing, all of them try desperately to cling onto something, preferably a solid something. Sensing his allies' distress, Tuxedo Mask decides to try something. Bracing himself and using momentum to direct himself, he breaks free from the windy stranglehold and propels himself towards Storm Eagle, and in a ready stance for attack. Sensing a potential threat, Storm Eagle raises his left turbine arm and brings forth a small-scale tornado and releases it in Tuxedo Mask's direction. Being in mid-air and therefore with no way to change his direction, Tuxedo Mask, takes the hit and is blown off the roof.

"No, Tuxedo Mask!" Sailor Moon cries in distress.

"We have to do something!" Jupiter says, her voice rising above the gales.

"But what? We can't hold on forever!" Mars says.

"Huh? The wind dropped?" Venus pipes up, confused.

True, after the potential Tuxedo Mask threat, Storm Eagle decided that he would stop playing around and get serious. Folding back his wings, he lets the winds calm. As he sees the Sailor Soldiers starting to steady on their feet once more, he flies high sharply, away from the Soldiers' reach, for a moment. Then again, he flies down sharply, towards the Sailor Soldiers.

"He's coming this way!" Venus frets.

"He's going too fast, I can't get sufficient data on him to analyse his weak points! And with his speed, I can't guarantee that you will all be able to cover me while I whittle at it!" Mercury cries.

"Then, we'll just have to work together." Mars declares. "Sailor Moon, Mercury, together with me, please!"

"STARDUST STREAM HIT!"

Seeing a stream of fire and ice, Eagle Storm releases several eggs in mid-flight. These soon hatch into metal pigeon-like creatures. The stardust stream takes out quite a few, but not all of them. The remaining fly down hard, ready for assault.

"What are those things?" Jupiter queries.

"I… I don't know. I'll try to analyse them, but I'm not sure I can. From our previous battles, I have compiled quite a database, but I'm not sure it'll be enough." Mercury identifies.

"It took the three of us (Mercury, Mars, Moon) to destroy half of it or so… but there's still more coming!" Sailor Moon panics.

"Jupiter, how about the two of us?" Venus decides.

Glancing at each other, they nod. "CRESCENT THUNDER!"

"Yes! We did it! No more of those bird projectiles!" Jupiter cheers.

Storm Eagle surveys the scene from above, not very happy. Diving once more, he seeks to knock the Soldiers off the roof, if possible and necessary. As the wreckage of the metal pigeon-like missile creatures fall onto the rooftop, Mercury, curious, picks up the remains of one. Even though it is quite unsafe to do so at the moment, she takes 'cover', if one could call it that, in a corner and starts to analyse the inner workings of this piece of technology.

"Wow… I've never seen anything like this. Such intricacy and complexity… this is a work of art. Yet, it's being used for war…" she muses to herself.

"Sailor Mini-Moon, watch out!" The other Soldiers warn.

"Wha?" Mini-Moon wonders, before turning around to be again greeted with the sight of Storm Eagle, up close. However, this time, she is not quite so lucky. The sheer velocity generated from Storm Eagle blows her off the roof.

"Sailor Mini-Moon!" Sailor Moon shrieks. Running to the edge of the roof, she hops over it and prepares to abseil-like down the side of the scraper.

"What are you doing?" Mars demands.

"I'm going after Sailor Mini-Moon. She may be hurt!"

"But-but-"

"Don't worry about me. Worry about that freaky bird, OK? Good luck!" And with that, she scales down.

"Thanks." Mars responds, softly.

---

Taking advantage of the distract Storm Eagle caused; Nagash floats down to the construction site to collect his prize – the first of seven Giga Emeralds. As the people below notice Nagash overhead, they scatter and run in fear for their lives. The scientists currently holding the emerald also run away in fear, but not before dropping the bright green gem into the soft dirt.

"I see my reputation precedes me." Nagash smirks, thoroughly amused at how easy this was going to be.

Seeing the emerald in the soft dirt, he picks it up gently and frees it from all the grit, causing it to shine brightly. Holding it up to the few remaining wisps of light, for it was nearly sunset by this point, he admires its gentle glow.

"Simply beautiful, and perfect."

---

"Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Mini-Moon screams as she falls from the rooftop. 'Don't think of the ground; don't think of the ground; don't think of the ground!' Closing her eyes, she chants in her head softly, like a mantra, to reassure herself.

And… all of a sudden, she stops falling and lands in a familiar warmth. She opens her eyes, in confusion. Looking up, she notes the familiar touch, the familiar outfit… and the familiar mask and top hat. Her eyes water in gratitude.

"Tuxedo Mask! You saved me!" She hugs him tight.

"Got here just in time, didn't I?" Tuxedo Mask smiles, and Mini-Moon smiles back.

From her current position, it's clear that somebody has caught Mini-Moon and she is safe from harm. Sailor Moon's heart swells in relief. Even before she hits the ground, she runs towards her future daughter.

"Thank goodness, you're all right, Mini-Moon! We're lucky that someone caught you before you fel—" She cuts off suddenly, noticing for the first time who Sailor Mini-Moon's saviour is. "Oh my God! Tuxedo Mask! You're ok, after all? And you saved Sailor Mini-Moon too!" She says in a rush, before pausing to take a breath. "I LOVE YOU!" And she too, runs towards him to give him a hug.

"Shouldn't we be going after the emerald? It's clear that Nagash wants it, no doubt for his evil purposes, and therefore, we should get it from him before he can escape with it." Tuxedo Mask suggests.

"Already on it!" Mini-Moon hops out of his arms and runs towards Nagash's direction.

"And we should follow her, just in case, right, Tuxedo Mask?'

"Right."

---

"And it's all mine." Nagash smirks.

But before he can stow it away however, small hands coming out of nowhere snatch the emerald away from his own hands.

"What the—!" He curses.

Some distance away, Sailor Mini-Moon holds the bright green gem in her own hands.

"Wow… the gem's so pretty. Just like green fire. And now it's all mine!" She giggles. And in the next instant, it disappears from her grasp. "HEY!"

"Yours, did you say?" Nagash smirks evilly in Mini-Moon's direction (she's pouting). Taunting her further, he throws it up into the air a little and catches it before throwing it into the air again. "I think not, this _Giga Emerald_ belongs to me, just like the other six of its kind. Not to some puny human like you."

"Puny, am I?" Sailor Mini-Moon pouts even further. "I'll show you."

And with that, she aims a –

"PINK SUGAR HEART ATTACK!"

– in Nagash's direction as he is climbing back up into the Skull Mobile.

"You call that an attack? Pathetic!" He taunts, ready to fly away back to the Citadel. However, during his taunts, he did not notice that Mini-Moon was nowhere to be seen after her attack and had climbed up onto the Skull Mobile just after he did.

"Give that back! It's not yours!"

"Make me."

"It's mine! MINE!"

"Whose?"

Nagash begins to ascend the Skull Mobile, making Mini-Moon slip and having to grab the spike at the bottom. Seconds later she is lifted off the ground and slowly getting higher and higher, all the while still demanding that Nagash give her back her 'pretty gem'.

---

"What! More of those pigeon creatures!" Sailor Mars puffs, a little exhausted.

"Soldiers, I've finished analysing the remains of the first lot of pigeon-creatures. They are similar to homing missiles, if you haven't noticed already. During my analysis, I discovered how the homing signal works. It's part electrical, part something else – I'll have to discover what later. Some sort of unidentified metal, I think. Nevertheless, the signal emitted and source is on a similar but not identical wavelength. If we were to somehow disrupt this, we would be able to re-program, if you like, this frequency, we would be able to redirect his attacks back at him!" Mercury says, excitedly.

"Great, but how do we do that?"

"I don't know what the metal is, but I have certified that it is a metal of some sort. And metal means free electrons. This means that we can use electricity to disrupt the cells and furthermore, we can also cause them to short-circuit slightly."

"Wouldn't we need an exact amount of electricity or something?"

"Yes, we would. I'm so happy – you guys were actually studying during that time!"

"Oh, be quiet, you."

"I've already figured out how much electricity is needed, give or take a few thousand volts…"

"A few thousand!"

"It's the best variable I could come up with, working with the unknowns, and it's the best chance we have at defeating this thing!"

"Let's do this, Mercury. How much electricity do you need?" Lita butts in.

"Give or take a few thousand volts, I'll lessen the odds hopefully, if I throw in water. Ready, Jupiter?"

"Ready."

"SHABON THUNDER!"

"I think it's working!" Venus claims.

The last onslaught of metal pigeons start to short-circuit a little and crackling energy can be seen on the outside. As the pigeons show no sign of changing velocity, Mercury panics.

"Oh no… I was wrong…"

"Wait…"

But just before they connect with the Sailor Soldiers (and cats), they swerve suddenly and change their course. Return to Sender. Back to their source. Upon connecting with Storm Eagle, they explode and the burnt frame of the once proud Storm Eagle falls off the side of the skyscraper before imploding, fortunately, out of anybody's vicinity.

"We did it!"

"You were right, Mercury!" Venus cheers.

"Thank goodness…"

---

Nagash is sitting in the Skull Mobile with one hand on a control stick of the main console and in the other, he holds the green glowing Emerald, in a clenched so he could concentrate on flying the one-man craft. He did not notice the future heir of Crystal Tokyo slowly climbing up the side of the craft.

"Oh, it's you. Don't you ever cease? Can't you accept the fact that you've already lost the Emerald to me, runt?"

Severely annoyed and strained at this point, Nagash rocks the Skull Mobile violently in an attempt to knock Mini-Moon off of it. Unfortunately for him, after rocking the craft from side to side for a while, it helped Mini-Moon to climb onto a wing. His eyes almost glowing red, he waves the arm, with the gem, trying to physically knock Mini-Moon off instead. Sensing his intent, Mini-Moon hurriedly grabs something else more solid, hopefully, so she wouldn't have to fall down (again). The closest thing she could grab a hold of however, was Nagash's pride and joy – his long, platinum blonde hair.

"You little runt! Let go of my hair!"

"Give me that gem, and I will!"

"Let. Go!"

During the Nagash's struggle of trying to get Sailor Mini Moon to remove her tight grip off his long platinum blonde hair, the evil warlord failed to notice that he had accidentally passed the Giga Emerald into Mini-Moon's hands while pushing her off his hair.

"No waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Sailor Mini Moon shrieks in surprise as she lets go and freefalls towards the ground.

"My most notable feature just stretched, but I'm just fine." Nagash grumbles to himself as he massages the area of his scalp belonging to the hair that was grabbed. Running his hand through his hair, he notices that his hands were empty, "AH, my Emerald!"

---

"Falling out of the sky again, are we?"

"Ah-hah…no, actually. Look what I got!" Mini-Moon giggles as she once again lands in Tuxedo Mask's arms, and thrusts the bright green, glowing Giga Emerald in his face.

"Congratulations. Come on, the others are waiting. But first, let's hide."

Placing Sailor Mini-Moon on her feet once more, the two run into an alley and hide from Nagash, who has flown down in the meantime in pursuit of the green gem.

"Shhh!" Tuxedo Mask shushes Mini-Moon.

"Hmm…" Nagash ponders as he looks towards the alleyway that the father and daughter team are currently hiding in. Checking it thoroughly from his vantage point, and his search coming up fruitless, he turns and leaves for the Citadel, very much disappointed.

---Early Evening, Darien's Apartment---

"Lookie here!" Rini states, proudly, as she holds up the bright green gem, its fire glowing. Giggling, she holds it higher, but then the soft fire within turns into a small tempest surrounding her.

"Rini!" Serena exclaims, panicking. The others join her in anxiety.

"It's OK, I'm not hurt. But… Darien, I think it broke your TV."

The battle, having finished, the Sailor Soldiers are back to their regular selves and are congregating at Darien's apartment, as they were, before this whole fiasco started. From their viewpoint, the green fire had enveloped Rini before snaking out and blasting the TV set.

"I'm sorry. I…_it_ won't do it again."

"'It'?" The others ask her, very much puzzled.

"I meant the gem. I didn't want to blow the TV up, but it told me it didn't like the TV, so it blew it up." Rini clarifies.

"So, what you're saying is, that all those electrical faults – it doesn't like the machinery, so it just destroyed them in some way?" Lita asks, mystified.

"Uh-huh." Rini nods.

"A talking gem… that's beyond weird." Mina comments.

"I wonder why Nagash wanted it so badly?" Amy wonders.

"No clue. However, that freaky blonde guy say that my pretty gem was a Giga Emerald and there are six more others like it. He didn't say much more than that." Rini shrugs, indifferent.

"So, Luna, Artemis. Any of this making more sense?" Serena asks the two cats.

"No, I can't remember any like this at all… however, if there's six more like it, and this one on its own was this much problem, I think it's safe to say that these are 'dangerous', not 'harmless', as we had earlier thought." Luna responds.

"I agree. I think I'd also hazard to say that if Nagash was allowed to get his hands on this, or any of the other six, we won't be able to stop him. Amy, you should analyse this as much as you can. If possible, I'd like to you, in conjunction with Luna and myself, to create a device of some sort to track these things down, so that we can protect them from Nagash." Artemis suggests.

"Yes, I agree wholeheartedly." Amy agrees.

"Let's get to work then. Onwards ho!" Serena calls out, with an arm in the air as encouragement.

---()---

Please review me your thoughts on this latest chapter, while that happens I'll get the next chapter up.


End file.
